Author Description

Initially a weekly feature in an American newspaper in 1881, The Devil's Dictionary was continued with some intervals until 1906, when it was first published as The Cynic's Word Book. Wickedly humorous and irreverant, it was so popular in its day that many definitions and anecdotes became a part of popular speech. Typically amusing entries are: fly, a monster of the air owning allegiance to Beelzebub; kill, to create a vacancy without nominating a successor; rhubarb, vegetable essence of stomach ache. A uniquely humorous perspective of the English language at the turn of the twentieth century, it still has relevance to readers today.