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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260710T140000
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UID:97728-1783692000-1783692000@www.chq.org
SUMMARY:Stefan Fatsis
DESCRIPTION:Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle — Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary by Stefan Fatsis \nWords are the currency of culture—and never more than today.  \nJournalist and bestselling author Stefan Fatsis embedded as a lexicographer-in-training at America’s most famous dictionary publisher\, Merriam-Webster\, to learn how words get into the dictionary\, where they come from\, who decides what they mean\, and how we write and think about them. As he recounts in Unabridged\, he discovered the history and fascinating subculture of the dictionary and of those who curate and revere “one of the most basic features of our collective humanity.”  \nFatsis reveals the little-known story of how the brothers George and Charles Merriam acquired Noah Webster’s original American dictionary and reshaped the business of language forever. Merriam-Webster became America’s most successful and enduring compendium of words\, withstanding intense competition and cultural controversies—only to be threatened by the power of Google and artificial intelligence today.  \nDelving into Merriam’s legendary archives and parsing its arcane rules\, Fatsis learns the painstaking precision required for writing good definitions. He examines how the dictionary has handled the most explosive slurs and the revolutionary change in pronouns. Fatsis demonstrates how words are weaponized in our polarized political culture—from liberal to woke to DEI—and\, in a time of insurrections and pandemics\, how they can be a literal matter of life and death. Along the way\, he manages to write a few definitions that crack the code and are enshrined in the pixelated dictionary.  \nUnabridged takes readers to the heart of an industry in flux\, celebrating as it does the sheer thrill and wonder of words.  \nStefan Fatsis is the author of Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary\, published in October by Grove Atlantic\, and three other books: the New York Times bestseller Word Freak\, about the world of competitive Scrabble; A Few Seconds of Panic\, about life in the NFL; and Wild and Outside\, about minor league baseball. In four decades as a journalist\, Fatsis has written and talked for Slate\, The Wall Street Journal\, NPR\, The New York Times\, The Atlantic\, ESPN\, Sports Illustrated\, and many other outlets. He lives in Washington\, D.C.
URL:https://www.chq.org/event/stefan-fatsis/
LOCATION:Hall of Philosophy\, Hall of Philosophy
CATEGORIES:Chautauqua Institution Program,Week Two (July 4–11),Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC),Weekly Themes,Literary Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.chq.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/CLSC_StefanFatsis_Unabridged.jpg
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