True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color—from Azure to Zinc Pink

Lexicographer Stamper (Word by Word) takes readers on an uproarious journey into Merriam-Webster’s somber early-20th-century office and the decades-long, behind-the-scenes kerfuffle over the seemingly simple task of defining colors. Stamper tracks the “earnest and painstaking” editorial relationship between the brilliant scientist I.H. Godlove and various harried editors at M-W, all of whom were struggling to define colors within the tension of “the democratic chaos of language and the curated precision of science.” In other words, the public pictures one thing at the word purple, but a scientist might say that purple doesn’t technically exist, so how should one define it? Stamper depicts the esoteric editorial wrangling and nitpicking with verve, bringing a self-serious, cloistered world to vivid life. She also poignantly profiles the devoted relationship between Godlove and his equally brilliant wife Margaret, who finished his work after his death. Beyond M-W’s walls, Stamper dives into a broader color history, from the great “dye famine” of WWI to congressional debates over whether margarine should be allowed to be yellow, as well as a slew of other surprising, complicated ways color has collided with industry. Stamper writes with grace and a delightful sense of humor, particularly when making fun of her own camp (the average lexicographer’s reaction to a party: “silent panic, then hives, then anaphylactic shock”). It’s a scintillating journey into the prismatic heart of a subject that “touch[es] everything.” (Mar.)