About this Event
Get inspired. Be empowered. Become quotable.
Sarasota Art Museum presents an inspiring lineup of great writers with great stories to tell through its annual author series. Hear directly from authors, artists, and contemporary creatives who are sparking new ways of thinking about art, culture, and creative practices. For those who appreciate remarkable creativity, a pioneering spirit, or are in search of inspiration, we invite you to join us and become quotable.
Kory Stamper is an author and lexicographer who has spent near 30 years thinking (too deeply) about how to define the words that define us. In her 20 years as an editor at Merriam-Webster, she defined everything from "blue plate special" to "god" and answered dictionary user questions on everything from what color "nude" really is to why it's "toothpaste" and not "teethpaste." Her moderate obsession with color terms and color names began during her time at Merriam-Webster, and led her through archives, the Merriam-Webster vault, several strangers' homes, and ultimately to her second nonfiction book, True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color—from Azure to Zinc Pink (2026, Knopf). In what passes as her spare time, she does language revitalization work for the Miami Nation of Indiana, where she is currently puzzling over how to best define the Miami color term that refers to some blues and some greens (but not all blues nor all greens).
Following the talk, Stamper will sign copies of her book True Color, available for purchase in the Museum’s SHOP.
About the Book
What could “bluer than fiesta” possibly mean? While editing dictionaries for Merriam-Webster, Kory Stamper found herself drawn again and again to the whimsical color definitions in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary—especially when compared to the dry and impersonal entries that filled the rest of the volume. Stamper couldn’t help but wonder: Who was the voice behind these peculiar definitions? Meet I. H. Godlove, an erratic but brilliant up-and-coming scientist who was one of the experts Merriam-Webster hired in 1930 to help revise the dictionary to reflect a rapidly modernizing world. His fascinating life mirrors the wild and winding journey that color science, color psychology, and color production took through the twentieth century.
Event venue & nearby stays
Sarasota Art Museum, 1001 South Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.