The African Svelte: Ingenious Misspellings That Make Surprising Sense

By Daniel Menaker, Roz Chast and Billy Collins

“For language lovers, this book, with all its verbal tangles and wit, is sure to, in its own words, ‘pass mustard’” (Poets & Writers).
 
Inspired by Daniel Menaker’s tenure at the New Yorker, this collection of comical, revelatory errors foraged from the wilds of everyday English comes with commentary by the author, illustrations by Roz Chast, and a foreword from Billy Collins.
 
During his time at the renowned magazine, Menaker happened across a superb spelling mistake: “The zebras were grazing on the African svelte.” Fascinated by the idea of unintentionally meaningful spelling errors, he began to see that these gaffes—neither typos nor auto-corrects—are sometimes more interesting than their straight-laced counterparts. Through examples he has collected over the course of his decades-long career as an editor and writer, he brings us to a new understanding of language—how it’s used, what it means, and what fun it can be.
 
Illustrated by the inimitable Roz Chast, with a foreword by former poet laureate Billy Collins, The African Svelte offers thoughtful and intelligent exit Jesus. With both uniquely happy accidents and familiar fumbles like “for all intensive purposes” and “doggy-dog world,” readers delighted by language will find themselves turning the pages with baited breath to discover fresh howlers that have them laughing off their dairy airs.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9780544800168

Daniel Menaker

DANIEL MENAKER (1941- 2020) began his career as a fact checker at The New Yorker, where he became an editor and worked for twenty-six years. A former book editor, Menaker authored of six books and wrote for the New York Times, the Atlantic, Parents, Redbook, and many others.

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Reviews for The African Svelte

[muddyboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you enjoy language and its use and abuse you will love this book. Chiefly the author takes expressions and shows how they are misused by the public. For instance - whet you appetite and wet your appetite. Mr. Menaker documents where he located the language abuse. He also has a wealth of information on the historical derivations of a vast array of words. These books are complimented by illustrations by Roz Chast that poke fun at these abuses. He does get bogged down with a little too much detail every now and then. Overall I learned a lot and enjoyed the book.