Frank Horace Vizetelly

Frank Horace Vizetelly (2 April 1864 – 1938) was an English lexicographer, etymologist and editor.

Life

Vizetelly was born in England, the only son of Henry Vizetelly and his second wife, Elizabeth Anne Ansell. His half-brother was Ernest Alfred Vizetelly (1853–1922). After an education in France and England, he joined his father's publishing house in 1882, the firm and his father were eventually ruined by convictions for obscenity resulting from the publication of the novels of Émile Zola.

He moved to New York in 1891, eventually becoming naturalised as a citizen of the United States. The publishers Funk & Wagnalls employed him, beginning on the Isaac K. Funk's editorial staff compiling A Standard Dictionary of the English Language. His continued to act as an editor for the firm's dictionaries and encyclopedia, and had a column in their Literary Digest known as "The Lexicographer's Easy Chair."

He died in 1938, being interred at New York's Woodlawn Cemetery.^[1]

Works

Vizetelly was the editor on over 250 publications. The number of publications on a range of subjects, from the humanities and sciences, demonstrated reveal a broad interest in a number of diverse subjects. His abiding interest was literary and lexical subjects, and he was frequently engaged in determining the origins and emergence of words in the English language.^[1]

References

1. "Frank H. Vizetelly - Biographical Essay/Obituary Notice - A Word a Day Man: a Biography". Centre d'études du 19e siècle français Joseph Sablé / Joseph Sablé Centre for 19th Century French Studies. Retrieved 28 November 2016.