There is no wittier, more amiable or more astute word maven than Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist William Safire. For many people, the first item on the agenda for Sunday morning is to sit down and read Safire's 'On Language' column in The New York Times Magazine, then to compose a 'Gotcha' letter to the Times. Each of his books on language is a classic to be read, re-read and fought over. Safire is the beloved, slightly crotchety guru of contemporary vocabulary, speech, language, usage and writing, as close as we are likely to get to a modern Samuel Johnson. Fans, critics and fellow language mavens eagerly await his books on language. His observations on grammar, usage, and etymology have led to the publication of fourteen 'word books' and have made him the most widely read writer on the English language today.
