Editor's Picks

This week, don’t miss a vibrant history of colors and their definitions, a visual study of artists and their dogs, and a fresh translation of The Epic of Gilgamesh

By Jim Kelly

This is an utterly delightful book about an unlikely topic: the quest to define different colors in dictionaries, especially before color plates were included. It is easy enough to describe a chair, but how do you explain azure? The book’s main character is I. H. Godlove, a scientist hired by Merriam-Webster in 1930 to modernize their classic work, and that is when the fun—and arguments—begin. How a color specialist defines “khaki” (moderate-medium-yellowish-yellow-orange) is not necessarily the same as a layperson might (tan). The way it all gets resolved, and the personalities involved in this pursuit, makes True Color as magical as a rainbow. READ ON