Word Nerd: Dispatches from the Games, Grammar, and Geek Underground

by John D. Williams Jr

Overview

In this zany, one-of-a-kind memoir, former executive director of the National SCRABBLE Association John D. Williams Jr. brings to life the obsessions, madness, and glory of the SCRABBLE® culture—from living-room players to world champions.

Beginning his career on a lark as a freelance contributor to SCRABBLE News, John D. Williams fell down a rabbit hole inhabited by gamers, geeks, and the grammar police. For twenty-five years, as the executive director of the National SCRABBLE Association, Williams served as the official spokesperson for the game, and as the middleman between legions of fanatical word-game fans and the official brand. Now Word Nerd takes readers inside the byzantine, dog-eat-dog world of top tournament players, creating a piquant (seven-letter word, 68 points!) work that is part pop-cultural history, part anthropological study. Indeed, what Christopher Guest did for the world of dog shows in his film Best in Show, Williams does for the world of competitive word games in this funny and perfectly observed memoir.

As readers will discover, Word Nerd explores anagrams, palindromes, the highest-scoring SCRABBLE plays of all time, the birth of the World SCRABBLE Championship, as well as many of the more colorful figures that inhabit this subculture. Die-hard word fans will find invaluable tips on how top players see their boards and racks to come up with the best play, how they prepare, and the psychology of tournament competition. Those uninitiated in the mysteries of SCRABBLE mania will find a delightful, madcap memoir about all the fun people have with language and how words shape our lives and culture in unexpected ways.

Whether reminiscing about past national champions, detailing the controversy over efforts to purge the Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary of all offensive words, opining on the number of vowelless words that are allowable (cmw for a Welsh deep-walled basin or nth for the ultimate degree), noting how long it takes a word to get into a dictionary, or explaining why there remain more male than female champions, Williams crafts a loving tribute to words and the games people play with them. Word Nerd will fascinate both amateurs and seasoned experts alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780871407740
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	06/15/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

John D. Williams Jr. served as the executive director of the National SCRABBLE Association, acting as the official national spokesman for the game, and is the coauthor of the best-selling Everything SCRABBLE®. He lives in Greenpoint, Long Island.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

1 The Game Begins 1

2 Opening Moves 7

3 How a Word Gets into the Dictionary 17

4 Wash Our Mouths Out with Soap 29

5 How I Became a Player 37

6 Media Time 53

7 The World Joins In 63

8 Man vs. Machine 93

9 The School Scrabble Program 99

10 School Scrabble Makes the Grade 115

11 Scrabble Hits TV 125

12 Going Hollywood 139

13 Jimmy Kimmel Spells It Out 147

14 Wordplay 157

15 Are Men Really Better than Women? 167

16 The End Game 179

17 After Words: Afterwards 193

Appendix 201

Acknowledgments 215

Editorial Reviews

03/16/2015
Williams, the first and only executive director of the National Scrabble Association, joyfully and enthusiastically recounts his unlikely 25-year tenure as the official national spokesman for the world-famous word game. Though he came from a family of avid gamers, John Williams wasn’t all that familiar with Scrabble as a youngster, but that all changed when he was asked to apply his advertising and PR skills to help get the fledgling Scrabble Players Bulletin off the ground. His job included overseeing and even participating in numerous tournaments around the world, contributing to the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, promoting the game through various outlets (including appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and Martha Stewart’s show), as well as dealing with vendors and the bureaucratic red tape that goes along with working with corporations. Williams offers sage advice for players (the best play doesn’t always yield the most points—you need to make sure you retain some letters to work with on succeeding plays) and some word exercises to strengthen one’s game (and brain). An appendix offers the full list of words banned from play. Casual gamers will find this light read to be a fun escape, while avid grammarians and fellow word nerds will devour it in a single sitting. Agent: Regula Noetzli, Regula Noetzli Literary Agency. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"For twenty-five years, John Williams oversaw the passionate eccentrics, petty controversies, corporate battles, and linguistic genius that make SCRABBLE one of America's quirkiest and most compelling subcultures. He's got some great stories to tell—the fight over dirty words is a doozy—and I'm glad he's telling them."

Stefan Fatsis

"I love words. I grew up in a SCRABBLE-playing family that loved words so much that they would mark in red the misspelled ones on my papers before I turned them in to my teachers. John D. Williams had similarly sadistic parents, which is probably why he's been able to write such a word-worthy book. If you love words, you'll love this book. If you love SCRABBLE as much as I do, you'll really love this book. In fact, if you can read, period, then this is the book for you!"

Morgan Spurlock

"For Scrabble fans—and they are everywhere, young and old, male and female—this walk down memory lane with the former National Scrabble Association (NSA) executive director is informative, funny, anecdotal, and bittersweet…. [A]ficionados will treasure this book for its appendixes: ‘offensive’ words; short Q, J, X, and Z words; ‘Important Vowel Dumps’: and more."

Booklist - Eloise Kinney

"Word Nerd is full of insights and stories about SCRABBLE® from John Williams's unique perspective as former head of the National SCRABBLE Association. Informative, eye-opening, often funny. Word nerds everywhere will eat this up."

Will Shortz

"For Scrabble fans—and they are everywhere, young and old, male and female—this walk down memory lane with the former National Scrabble Association (NSA) executive director is informative, funny, anecdotal, and bittersweet…. [A]ficionados will treasure this book for its appendixes: ‘offensive’ words; short Q, J, X, and Z words; ‘Important Vowel Dumps’: and more."

Eloise Kinney - Booklist

05/01/2015
Laying bare the complex world of competitive Scrabble (this is some serious stuff), Williams Jr. (coauthor, Everything SCRABBLE) shares all that he learned during his 25 years as executive director of the National SCRABBLE® Association. Covering everything from controversies over offensive language to the creation of the National School SCRABBLE Championship to the nerd love of anagrams shared by die-hard Scrabble players, Williams's account is a quirky tell-all filled with humorous and intriguing accounts of geek gaming. This is an approachable read for gamers and non-gamers alike, and a solid introduction to the history of an iconic game and the rich subculture that surrounds it. Even readers who are unfamiliar with the world of Scrabble will enjoy the author's tale of gaming fame (and infamy). VERDICT This quick, highly entertaining read will appeal to anyone interested in language and word games, even if they aren't Scrabble aficionados. The word lists included in the appendix will make a valuable addition to any player's arsenal, as will the tips and tricks to help beginners improve their game.—Gricel Dominguez, Florida International Univ. Lib.

Library Journal

2015-03-16
The co-author of the bestselling Everything SCRABBLE© returns with a motley collection of anecdotes, advice, and autobiography—all relating, more or less, to the game he loves. Williams' text follows his decades of experience as executive director of the National SCRABBLE Association, a tenure that ended recently due, in part, to the profound changes in the landscape of the gaming world. There is a little bit of everything here, including an appendix of proscribed game words (the naughty, the insulting), a mildly ranting chapter about grammar and usage, and a chapter that includes advice on how to tell someone that he or she has committed a solecism. Williams tells us a bit about his own playing career—he had early success, then quit studying so much and fell from grace—and about his joining the SCRABBLE team with owner Hasbro Inc. He relates stories about the spread of the competitive game, even into schools. Middle school, he and his team discover, is the best level. (A high school kid once called him a dork.) There is a dull chapter about adult championships, and there are some near-fawning chapters about the author's experiences with TV and movie celebrities. (Actor Jack Black is a devoted player; on his show, Jimmy Kimmel played against scholastic champions; the producers of the 2001 film The Wedding Planner ignored his counsel.) Williams also tells about declining an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart because he feared an ambush, and he includes an awkward section about why men/boys seem to win all the championships. The author chronicles his interviews with some top women players, who, unfortunately, don't shed much light on this issue. Williams takes a few pokes at some of the Hasbro executives he worked for (he also praises many others) and seems quite happy that his appearance on an episode of Martha Stewart's show is still on YouTube. An average game with no triple word scores.

Kirkus Reviews