Robert Hartwell Fiske

Robert Hartwell Fiske (March 5, 1948 – April 25, 2016) was a writer, editor, and publisher of The Vocabula Review, an online journal about the English language, from 1999 until his death in 2016. He wrote several books about grammar and usage, including To the Point: A Dictionary of Concise Writing (Norton, 2014), The Dictionary of Unendurable English (Scribner, 2011), The Dimwit's Dictionary (Marion Street Press, 2011), and Elegant English (Vocabula Communications Company, 2014).

The purpose of the site, according to Fiske, was to encourage clear English and to discourage careless English. Among the schools which had bought licenses to the site were Columbia University, Princeton University, and Stanford University.[1]

After Fiske's death of melanoma in 2016 at the age of 68, essayist Joseph Epstein said that Fiske was "an unknown soldier in that most glorious and hopeless of wars, that against the ignorant and abusive use of language." He stated that Fiske's linguistic prescriptivism was not well-received by contemporary linguists.[2]

Reviewing Vocabula Bound, a collection of essays and poems culled from The Vocabula Review, linguist Alan Kaye said it is "far too prescriptivist in orientation for a sophisticated linguistic audience".[3] In the Canadian newspaper the National Post, a book reviewer said Fiske's Dictionary of Unendurable English would be enjoyed by "word snobs and copy editors" and would benefit those learning English.[4] A book reviewer in the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail said that it is "so passionate in the prescriptivist cause of smiting the lax and the uncaring that the book at times resembles a parody of itself".[5]

References
  1. McCarthy, Gail. "A man and his words: Rockport writer's 'Vocabula' strikes new chords". Gloucester Daily Times. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  2. Joseph Epstein (3 May 2016). "Death of a Word Man: An appreciation of the author of 'Robert Hartwell Fiske's Dictionary of Unendurable English.'". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  3. Kaye, Alan S. (2007). "Rev. of Fiske (ed.), Vocabula Bound". Language. 83 (2): 459–60. JSTOR 40070867.
  4. "Book Review: Dictionary of Unendurable English, by Robert Hartwell Fiske". National Post. November 18, 2011. Archived from the original on 4 June 2014. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
  5. Clements, Warren (Nov 4, 2011). "Robert Hartwell Fiske: A fanatical stickler for diction". The Globe and Mail.
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