Author Description

Text extracted from opening pages of book: HARTRAMPF'S Vocabulary-Builder REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION By GUSTAVUS A. HARTRAMPF With Special Introduction and Vocabulary Tests by ROSS McLAURY TAYLOR, PhJD. Grosset & Dunlap Publishers NEW YORK HOW THIS VOCABULARY-BUILDER WILL WORK FOR YOU THE FAMOUS English dictionary-maker, Dr. Samuel Johnson, was once taken to task by a user of his great book for the omission of several words which she deemed important. I am really very much surprised, Doctor Johnson, she said. Whatever made you omit those important words? Ignorance, Madam, sheer ignorance, was the reply of the learned doctor. Nowadays, with our tremendously improved facilities for self - education, this disarming reply would not suffice. We have at our disposal thousands upon thousands of reference tools which even the leading scholars of Dr. Johnson's day lacked. And one of the simplest and most effective ways for you to guarantee that you will have the right word at your fingertips at the right time is to make a daily practice of using Hartrampfs VOCABULARY-BUILDER. You will find the method of using this book simplicity itself. Let us assume that you are a motion-picture critic faced with the need for describing the newest and brightest performance of Hollywood's leading comedienne. You toy with such adjectives as gay, laughable, entertaining and clever, but all of them lack freshness and vigor. None of them has the punch that the actress' own performance had. So you turn to Hartrampf s VOCABULARY-BUILDER and look in the index at the back of the book where you will find the following entry: entertain 99A, 48A, 114, 113 Turn to section 99A, which can easily be found from the numbersat the top of every page, and there you will find dozens upon dozens of verbs, adjectives and nouns conveying every conceivable shade of meaning of the words entertain, enter taining, and entertainment* Here, to describe your comedienne's performance, you will find blithe, engaging, viv