Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage

by William Morris and Mary Morris

Book Overview

Great copy. Hardcover. Clear white pages with no markings. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060130628
• ISBN13: 9780060130626
• Release Date: January 1975
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 650 Pages
• Weight: 2.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Reference Manual for Proper English

This is the best book you can own for the proper use of English. I was first aquainted with this book in graduate school many years ago when a professor trashed a paper that I had written and used "due to". He told me that "due to" should only be used as a cause of death (e.g. he died from complications of Alzheimer's). Any other time you should use "because", "as a result of", etc. He showed me this book then and I bought it for reference. I have since bought it several times for gifts to friends who need to use the English language properly. A great reference book!!!

A treasure of knowledge and fun

I learned everything I know about grammar and usage from this book! It was a gift to me as a teenager and it guided me to A's throughout high school and college. Who would have thought a dictionary could actually be FUN to read? Well this one is because it poses a multitude of common problems in contempory usage, e.g. "to split or not to split infinitives", and then lets a range of academics and humorists tackle them. The results are both enlightening and amusing.Too bad its out of print.

Author critiques usage survey

Ain't, copacetic, happily, hopefully--if these make your skin creep you should check out the Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage. The authors have solicited opinions from a varied group of successful users of the USAmerican language, such as: Saul Bellow, Walter Cronkite, and Andy Rooney.