Our language is full of hundreds of quotations that are often cited but seldom confirmed. Ralph Keyes's "The Quote Verifier "considers not only classic misquotes such as "Nice guys finish last," and "Play it again, Sam," but more surprising ones such as "Ain't I a woman?" and "Golf is a good walk spoiled," as well as the origins of popular sayings such as "The opera ain't over till the fat lady sings," "No one washes a rented car," and "Make my day."<BR>Keyes's in-depth research routinely confounds widespread assumptions about who said what, where, and when. Organized in easy-to-access dictionary form, "The Quote Verifier" also contains special sections highlighting commonly misquoted people and genres, such as Yogi Berra and Oscar Wilde, famous last words, and misremembered movie lines.<BR>An invaluable resource for not just those with a professional need to quote accurately, but anyone at all who is interested in the roots of words and phrases, "The Quote Verifier" is not only a fascinating piece of literary sleuthing," "but also a great read.

"Memory may be a terrible librarian, but it's a great editor." So says the author of The Courage to Write in tracing the sources and usage history of many familiar but often misattributed or misquoted classic and contemporary sayings. E.g., what Churchill actually said was "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" rather than "blood, sweat, and tears." Keyes' verdict is that this is the prime minister's take on an old phrase. Quotes are organized alphabetically by key word, including genres such as famous last words and movie quotes. Indexing is by key word, name, and sidebar (featuring people who commonly have words put in their mouth). This well- researched, entertaining reference deserves a cloth edition.
Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

"Memory may be a terrible librarian, but it's a great editor." So says the author of The Courage to Write in tracing the sources and usage history of many familiar but often misattributed or misquoted classic and contemporary sayings. E.g., what Churchill actually said was "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" rather than "blood, sweat, and tears." Keyes' verdict is that this is the prime minister's take on an old phrase. Quotes are organized alphabetically by key word, including genres such as famous last words and movie quotes. Indexing is by key word, name, and sidebar (featuring people who commonly have words put in their mouth). This well- researched, entertaining reference deserves a cloth edition. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)