Richard Henry Lederer

'From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia'

Richard Lederer (born May 26, 1938) is an American author, speaker, and teacher. He is best known for his books on the English language and on word play such as puns, oxymorons, and anagrams. He refers to himself as "the Wizard of Idiom," "Attila the Pun," and "Conan the Grammarian."[1] His weekly column, "Looking at Language", is syndicated in newspapers and magazines throughout the United States.

Early life and education

Lederer was the youngest of five children born to a Jewish mother from Poland and a Jewish father from Bavaria.[2] He was raised in West Philadelphia.[2] He graduated from Haverford College[2] as a pre-med student.[1] He attended Harvard Law School for one year,[1] then switched to the Master of Arts in Teaching Program at Harvard University. He taught English and media at the St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire for 27 years until 1989, where he served as the first Jewish head of a department.[2] He later earned a Ph.D in Linguistics from the University of New Hampshire.[2] Career

In 1998, he and Charles Harrington Elster became founding co-hosts of the weekly radio show, A Way with Words, produced by KPBS, San Diego Public Radio, and broadcast by multiple stations throughout the United States. In October, 2006, Lederer retired from A Way with Words. He continues broadcasting through regular guest appearances on several major market public and Clear-Channel commercial radio stations.[citation needed]

He has written more than 30 books, including Anguished English, Get Thee to a Punnery, Crazy English,[3] A Man of My Words, The Word Circus, The Miracle of Language, The Cunning Linguist, and Word Wizard, and Presidential Trivia. Known as a "verbivore", a word he coined in the early 1980s, Lederer's interests include uncovering word origins, pointing out common grammatical errors and fallacies, and exploring palindromes, anagrams, and other forms of recreational wordplay. Lederer wrote the foreword to Words at Play: Quips, Quirks and Oddities, by O.V. Michaelsen (Sterling Publishing Company, New York, 1998), and to Weather Facts and Fun (2009), a children's book on weather, co-written by Josh Judge and Kathe Cussen and published by SciArt Media. He was elected International Punster of the Year in 1989[4] and was the 2002 recipient of the Golden Gavel of Toastmasters International.[5] Personal life

Lederer has been married twice.[2] He had three children with his first wife, Rhoda Spagenburg, an advertising manager for The Village Voice in New York:[6] Howard Lederer and Annie Duke, both world-renowned poker players, and Katy Lederer, an author and poet. In 1992, he married Simone van Egeren, whom he met at a Mensa gathering.[2] They live in San Diego, California.

From Quotable Quotes

“Let’s face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. ... "

---

• official site, Wikipedia, Geneanet

  ---

• Residence: 1940 - 6201 Ellsworth Street, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
• Race: White
  • Updated from 1940 United States Federal Census via mother Leah Lederer by SmartCopy: Feb 23 2015, 0:59:22 UTC