Dmitri Borgmann

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Dmitri Borgmann
Borgmann in a 1964 portrait by Jeff Lowenthal
Born
Dmitri Alfred Borgmann

(1927-10-22)October 22, 1927
Berlin, Weimar Republic
DiedDecember 7, 1985(1985-12-07) (aged 58)
Dayton, Washington, U.S.
Known forLogology

Dmitri Alfred Borgmann (October 22, 1927 – December 7, 1985) was a German-American author best known for his work in recreational linguistics.

Early life

Borgmann was born on October 22, 1927, in

ghost-write and edit short stories, academic books, and TV and movie scripts. Borgmann eventually relocated the company and his family to Dayton, Washington.[1][3][5][6]

Writing career

Borgmann first attracted media attention for his skill with words in 1958, when over the course of eight weeks he defeated 22 challengers in a row on WGN-TV's It's In The Name, winning nearly $3,800.[1][7][8] Around this time he also started contributing word puzzles and trivia to "Line o' Type or Two", a column in the Chicago Tribune. Much of this material was mined from back issues of The Enigma, the official journal of the National Puzzlers' League which he had joined in 1956.[7] By 1964 he had established himself as "the country's leading authority on word play",[4][9] a designation he continued to hold up until the time of his death.[10]

His first book,

Language on Vacation: An Olio of Orthographical Oddities, was published by Scribner's in 1965, and received critical acclaim from major magazines and literary journals, including Time and Scientific American.[11][12][13] Today it is best remembered for popularizing the word logology to refer to the field of recreational linguistics; Borgmann himself is often referred to now as the "Father of Logology".[14][15][16][17]

The publicity generated by Language on Vacation led to Borgmann being contracted by industrial design firm

Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics. Borgmann edited the magazine for its inaugural year, but resigned after Greenwood refused to meet his salary demands.[7][20] When Greenwood appointed fellow logologist Howard W. Bergerson to succeed him as editor-in-chief, Borgmann refused to ever speak to him again.[21]

A follow-up to Language on Vacation, entitled

Puzzle Lovers Newspaper, and continued to contribute articles to Word Ways.[5][6][7] (Much of this writing was published under pseudonyms, including El Uqsor, Jezebel Q. XIXX, Ramona J. Quincunx, and Prof. Merlin X. Houdini.)[7][24] He also sponsored "Jackpot Jubilee", a series of word contests.[5][6][7]

Later life and death

In the late 1970s Borgmann founded a

ordainment certificates and divinity degrees.[25][26][27][28] He also advertised the church in Hustler, encouraging the publisher to omit the first T in "Immortality". As many as a hundred people joined the movement.[21]

Borgmann had a reputation for being reclusive to the point of

heart attack on December 7, 1985, at the age of 58.[19][21] He was survived by his wife of 23 years, Iris Sterling, and their two sons, Mark and Keith.[2]

After his death, Eckler and Borgmann's son Keith went through his papers, finding material for a number of articles which were published posthumously in Word Ways.[2] The Special Collections and University Archives of the Stanford University Libraries has collected and preserved correspondence between Borgmann and Martin Gardner, dating from 1956 to the 1980s, across 19 folders of its Martin Gardner Papers.[29]

Bibliography

  • Borgmann, Dmitri A. (1965).
    OCLC 8478220
    .
  • Borgmann, Dmitri A. (1967).
    OCLC 655067975
    .
  • Borgmann, Dmitri A., ed. (1970). Curious Crosswords. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Phil Baechler (April 7, 1980). "Word Play: Meet the man who named 'Exxon'". The Spokesman-Review. pp. 6–7. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  2. ^
    Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics
    . 18 (1): 3–5.
  3. ^
    Eugene Register-Guard
    . April 17, 1980. p. 45. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  4. ^ a b "Life and leisure: Words within words". Newsweek. 64 (2): 62. November 2, 1964.
  5. ^
    Who's Who in Finance and Industry. Vol. 22. Marquis Who's Who
    . 1981. p. 68.
  6. ^
    Who's Who in the West. Vol. 18. Marquis Who's Who
    . 1981. p. 73.
  7. ^
    Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics
    . 46 (1): 35–42.
  8. ^ Dmitri A. Borgmann (March 4, 1973). "My words and welcome to them". Chicago Tribune. pp. 50–51. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  9. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0964-218
    .
  10. S2CID 170326821
    .
  11. ^ "Word salad". Time. Vol. 86, no. 12. September 17, 1965. p. 139.
  12. ^ "Language on Vacation". Kirkus Reviews. August 19, 1965.
  13. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1265-114
    .
  14. ISBN 978-0-915924974
    .
  15. ISBN 978-1-101-58863-5
    .
  16. ISBN 1-57230-933-4
    .
  17. ISBN 978-0312155803
    .
  18. ^ a b c Scot Morris (October 1986). "Games". OMNI. 9 (1): 182–183.
  19. ^
    ISBN 9780452261518
    .
  20. ^ Marc Abrahams (December 17, 2012). "Wordplay proves a fruitful area for research". The Guardian. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  21. ^
    Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics
    . 21 (4): 195–198.
  22. ^ "Beyond Language". Kirkus Reviews. May 31, 1967.
  23. ^ "!!PppppppP!!!". Time. Vol. 90, no. 7. August 18, 1967. p. 100.
  24. ISBN 978-3598249617
    .
  25. ISBN 90-04-06910-0
    .
  26. ^ "Classified ads". Mother Jones. 3 (9): 70. November 1978.
  27. ^ "Classified ads". The Atlantic. 243: 96. 1979.
  28. ^ "Classified ads". New Times. 11: 22. 1978.
  29. Online Archive of California. University of California
    . Retrieved October 22, 2014.
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