Book to Honor Richard W. Bailey

[Michael Adams]

Several weeks ago, Ron Butters notified this list of Richard W. Bailey's death. Richard was a friend to many on the list and an inspiring teacher and mentor to many of us in linguistic and English language studies. Anne Curzan and I have edited a volume, titled Contours of English and English Language Studies, to celebrate Richard's career and influence, recently published by the University of Michigan Press. We thought members of this list might be interested in it and wanted to let you know about it.

The book has four sections representing four subjects of particular interest to Richard: American Dialects, the History of English Language, English Lexicography, and English Language Studies and Education. Dennis Preston, Walt Wolfram, Bill Kretzschmar, and Sonja Lanehart contribute to the section on American Dialects; Lynda Mugglestone, Anatoly Liberman, Edgar Schneider, and Colette Moore to that on the History of English; Joan Hall, Jesse Sheidlower, Michael Montgomery, and Marsha Dutton to that on English lexicography; and Geneva Smitherman and Minne Quartey-Annan, Amy Devitt, Dennis Baron, and Susanmarie Harrington to the section on English and Education. I don't want to take up a lot of space describing the book here, but you can see from the contributors that it's a significant work -- the contents well warrant the purchase price of $39.95. If you teach at a college or university, please recommend it to your library, for its own sake, but to honor Richard, as well.

Michael Adams

 
P.S. Richard read portions of the book in proofs (or head them read to him) during his final illness. Those who knew him well will be glad to hear that he had several suggestions about how we could improve it.

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org