A kaleidoscopic journey through the secret history of huesand the story of the obsessive genius behind the definitions of colors we use today, from the beloved author of Word by Word

begonia (n.): 3 -s : a deep pink that is bluer, lighter, and stronger than average coral (see coral 3b), bluer than fiesta, and bluer and stronger than sweet william called also gaiety

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 Websters Third New International Dictionaryespecially when compared to the dry and impersonal entries that filled the rest of the dictionary. Stamper couldnt 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. Stamper tracks these industries as they move into the atomic age and intertwine in strange and surprising ways, spanning two world wars and involving chemical explosions, an unexpected suicide, dramatic office politics, and an extraordinary love story.
Filled with captivating facts about color words and colors themselvesdid you know that the word puke used to be a highly fashionable color before it was associated with vomit?and fueled by Stampers inexhaustible curiosity, True Color will transform the way you see the world, from black-and-white to Technicolor.