Published, The Story of Ain't · Most Controversial Dictionary Ever

“It takes true brilliance to lift the arid tellings of lexicographic fussing into the readable realm of the thriller and the bodice-ripper….David Skinner has done precisely this, taking a fine story and honing it to popular perfection.”

—Simon Winchester, *New York Times* bestselling author of *The Professor and the Madman*

*The Story of Ain’t* by David Skinner is the captivating true chronicle of the creation of *Merriam Webster’s Third New International Dictionary* in 1961, the most controversial dictionary ever published. Skinner’s surprising and engaging, erudite and witty account will enthrall fans of Winchester’s *The Professor and the Madman* and *The Meaning of Everything*, and *The Know-It-All* by A.J. Jacobs, as it explores a culture in transition and the brilliant, colorful individuals behind it. *The Story of Ain’t* is a smart, often outrageous, and altogether remarkable tale of how egos, infighting, and controversy shaped one of America’s most authoritative language texts, sparking a furious language debate that the late, great author David Foster Wallace (*Infinite Jest*) once called “the Fort Sumter of the Usage Wars.”