Ralph Keyes

Euphemania: Our Love Affair with Euphemisms

von Ralph Keyes

How did die become kick the bucket, underwear become unmentionables, and having an affair become hiking the Appalachian trail? Originally used to avoid blasphemy, honor taboos, and make nice, euphemisms have...

The Quote Verifier

von Ralph Keyes

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...

I Love It When You Talk Retro

von Ralph Keyes

An entertaining and informative book about the fashion and fads of language

Today’s 18-year-olds may not know who Mrs. Robinson is, where the term “stuck in a groove” comes from, why 1984 was a year unlike...

The Post-Truth Era

von Ralph Keyes

"Dishonesty inspires more euphemisms than copulation or defecation. This helps desensitize us to its implications. In the post-truth era we don't just have truth and lies but a third category of ambiguous statements...

The Courage to Write

von Ralph Keyes

Katherine Anne Porter called courage “the first essential” for a writer. E.B. White said that he admired anyone who “has the guts to write anything at all.” In The Courage to Write, Ralph Keyes assures...

The Writer's Book of Hope

von Ralph Keyes

In 1889, the editor of the San Francisco Examiner, having accepted an article from Rudyard Kipling, informed the author that he should not bother to submit any more. "This isn't a kindergarten for amateur writers,"...

Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins

von Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes

Success in today's business economy demands nonstop innovation. But fancy buzzwords, facile lip service, and simplistic formulas are not the answer. Only an entirely new mindset -- a new attitude toward success...