Wordsmith

Writer, physician, philosopher and lexicographer ?mile Littr? was commissioned by Hachette in 1841 to compile 'A New Etymological Dictionary of the French Language'. The work, finally started in 1845, took nearly 30 years to complete, during which period France went through a great deal of turbulence. Littr? wrote this companion volume, a remarkable novella-length essay, Comment j'ai fait mon dictionnaire (How I Made My Dictionary), in 1880, which was translated and published for the first time in English in 1998 by a former Indian diplomat. This translation, now brought back into print by Hachette India, has been commended for its accuracy by Dictionaries, a journal of The Dictionary Society of North America, who described his ?translation as 'accurate and conveying the original's lively, intense effect...' This little book is a vital philological addition to the study of words and language and an insight into the wonderful men who made that study possible by embarking on such epic ventures.