Article: Inside the Word World of Merriam-Webster - Atlantic

[Garson O'Toole]

Inside the Word World of Merriam-Webster
By Jen Doll  -   3,749 Views  -  July 27, 2012
theatlanticwire.com  - Atlantic magazine website

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/07/inside-word-world-merriam-webster/55076/
http://bit.ly/MDM3jt

[Begin excerpt]
The office of Merriam-Webster has existed in essentially the same
spot, in Springfield, Massachusetts, since 1831. While the building
has changed both inside and out in the many decades following George
and Charles Merriam's establishment of their "printing and bookselling
operation," the location—and much of how the editors work—has not.
When I arranged to speak by phone to Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster
editor-at-large, for this piece, he emailed that he needed to move to
a conference room for our call. "We work in a silent office," he
wrote.

"A silent office?" I marvel, when we speak. According to Sokolowski,
there was at one point an official code of silence in place, though it
may have only been held as "law" in the '50s and '60s, when the staff
was larger and worked without cubicle walls between them. There
remains, however, "a powerful culture of silence in the office," he
explains.
[End excerpt]

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