From the Grouch’s Shelves A Bibliography
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f the many works on language and related subjects that fill the grouchy grammarian’s shelves, a number show signs of particularly heavy consultation through the years, and hence can be considered to have made important contributions to my friend’s thinking. Among these are H. W. Fowler’s Modern English Usage (in its original [1926], second corrected [1937], and revised [by Sir Ernest Gowers—1965] editions) and also the latest incarnation of this famous book, published as The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage, edited by R. W. Burchfield (1996). My friend has also made much use of the Fowler brothers’ (H. W. and F. G.) earlier (1906; third edition, 1931) classic work The King’s English. (All the Fowler volumes are published by the Oxford University Press.) The list includes, as well, two other outstanding dictionaries of usage—A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage, by Bergen Evans and Cornelia Evans (well worth an extensive search in secondhand bookstores—Random House, 1957; reprinted by Galahad Books, 1981), and Modern American Usage, by Wilson Follett, edited and completed by Jacques Barzun et al. (Hill and Wang, 1966). •
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