Join Indiana University English Department Chairman and word nerd Michael Adams to talk about a recent acquisition of an enormous collection of dictionaries and associated material by the Lilly Library. The Kripke Collection is a lexicographer's dream, full of books on slang, pirate terms, erotic language, obscenities, regional terms, as well as ephemera, pamphlets, archival material about making and selling dictionaries, and much more! Michael talks about the history of early dictionaries and the behind-the-scenes drama that arose as passionate experts tangled over words and attribution. We also discuss the politics of dictionaries, how decisions about what is included and how it is defined are made by people (for better or worse), and how dictionaries present a moment in time in a particular cultural context. Michael explains what criteria could be used to evaluate the quality of a professional dictionary and shares his enthusiasm for lay dictionaries and glossaries and how those represent the human engagement and creativity that underlie efforts to share what we know about the words we use. Jennifer tells a story about finding herself creating a Wardaman-English dictionary for an Australian aborigine rock art study. A fun and lively episode.

An article about the acquisition:
https://libraries.indiana.edu/lilly-library/KripkeCollectionAcquired

The bilingual dictionary collection Michael mentioned:
https://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/lilly/exhibitions_legacy/shorttitle/dictionary.html

Some books he recommended:
The Professor and the Madman
https://bookshop.org/books/the-professor-and-the-madman-a-tale-of-murder-insanity-and-the-making-of-the-oxford-english-dictionary/9780060839789
The Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
https://bookshop.org/books/the-making-of-the-oxford-english-dictionary/9780198826163
The Word Detective
https://bookshop.org/books/the-word-detective-searching-for-the-meaning-of-it-all-at-the-oxford-english-dictionary/9781541697218
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries
https://bookshop.org/books/word-by-word-the-secret-life-of-dictionaries/9781101970263

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