HENDRICKSON, Robert 1933–

PERSONAL: Born August 24, 1933, in Far Rockaway, NY; son of Oscar F. (a civil and electrical engineer) and Eunice (a teacher; maiden name, Tierney) Hendrickson; married Marilyn Maggio (a reading teacher), August 29, 1954; children: Robert Laurence, Brian, Karen, Lauren, Erik. Education: Adelphi University, A.B. (cum laude), 1957. Politics: Independent. Hobbies and other interests: Gardening, philology, travel, ecology, running, distance swimming.

ADDRESSES: Home—2417 Cornaga Ave., Far Rockaway, NY 11691.

CAREER: Freelance writer. Military service: U.S. Army, 1952–54; served in Korea.

MEMBER: Phi Alpha Theta, Pi Gamma Mu.

AWARDS, HONORS: Ford Foundation fellowship, 1958; Macdowell Colony fellowship, 1973.

WRITINGS:

Human Words: The Compleat Unexpurgated, Uncomputerized Human Wordbook, Chilton (Philadelphia, PA), 1972.

Lewd Food: The Complete Guide to Aphrodisiac Edibles, Chilton (Radnor, PA), 1974, revised edition published as Foods for Love, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1980.

Ripoffs, Viking (New York, NY), 1975.

The Great American Chewing Gum Book, Chilton (Radnor, PA), 1976.

The Great American Tomato Book, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1977.

Grand Emporium: The Illustrated History of America's Great Department Stores, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1979.

The Berry Book: The Illustrated Home Gardener's Guide to Growing and Using Over 50 Kinds and 500 Varieties of Berries, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1981.

The Literary Life and Other Curiosities, Viking (New York, NY), 1981.

(Coauthor) 2001 Free Things for the Garden, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1983.

Animal Crackers: A Bestial Lexicon, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 1983.

More Cunning Than Man: A Social History of Rats and Men, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1983.

Business Talk: The Dictionary of Business Words and Phrases, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1984.

The Ocean Almanac, Being a Copious Compendium on Sea Creatures, Nautical Lore and Legend, Master Mariners, Naval Disasters, and Myriad Mysteries of the Deep, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1984.

Salty Words, Hearst Marine Books (New York, NY), 1984.

The Dictionary of Eponyms: Names That Became Words, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1985.

American Talk: The Words and Ways of American Dialects, Viking (New York, NY), 1986.

The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1987, 3rd edition, 2003.

British Literary Anecdotes, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1990.

American Literary Anecdotes, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1990.

The Henry Holt Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Holt (New York, NY), 1990.

Sumter, the First Day of the Civil War, Scarborough House (New York, NY), 1990.

World Literary Anecdotes, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1990.

Whistlin' Dixie: A Dictionary of Southern Expressions, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1993.

Ladybugs, Tiger Lilies, and Wallflowers, Prentice Hall General Reference (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1993.

Grand Slams, Hat Tricks, and Alley-Oops: A Sports Fan's Book of Words, Prentice Hall General Reference (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1994.

Happy Trails: A Dictionary of Western Expressions, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1994.

Yankee Talk: A Dictionary of New England Expressions, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1996.

Mountain Range: A Dictionary of Expressions from Appalachia to the Ozarks, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1997.

New Yawk Tawk: A Dictionary of New York City Expressions, Facts on File (New York, NY), 1998.

The Road to Appomattox, J. Wiley (New York, NY), 1998.

The Show Biz Life: An Anecdotal History of Stage, Screen, and Television, Contemporary Books (New York, NY), 1999.

The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms: Local Terms and Expressions from Coast to Coast, Facts on File (New York, NY), 2000.

World English: From Aloha to Zed, J. Wiley (New York, NY), 2001.

Animal Words, Random House (New York, NY), 2002.

Also contributor to New York Times Gardening Book, People's Almanac, parts I and II, Book of Lists, parts I and II, and other books. Contributor of about one thousand articles, stories, and poems to literary quarterlies and periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS: Robert Hendrickson has written prolifically about words and language. The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms: Local Terms and Expressions from Coast to Coast was first issued as a five-volume series, and was described as an "entertaining resource" by School Library Journal reviewer J. B. MacDonald. It provides examples and definitions of words and phrases unique to seven regions in the United States, also giving an overview of each region's background and linguistic history. It offers "insights into why Americans speak the way they do," concluded MacDonald. Elizabeth Connor, reviewing the book for Library Journal, recommended it as a "fascinating resource." Hendrickson focused English in all its variations in World English: From Aloha to Zed. "Hendrickson's love of the English language is apparent," noted Library Journal contributor Manya Chylinski. World English is "entertaining and informative," she wrote.

The final thirteen months of the Civil War are the subject of Hendrickson's The Road to Appomattox. Focusing on the two military leaders in that conflict, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, he analyzes their personalities and war tactics as well as describing key military engagements. "Hendrickson's interest is not in bringing out new data or exploring interpretive issues about this well-known struggle, but in providing Civil War buffs with a reasonably brisk account of the conventional wisdom about these events," remarked David Grimsted in Historian. Roland Green commented in Booklist on the way the author "almost novelistically" relates the events of the era, and John Carver Edwards, in Library Journal, also recom-mended the book as "definitely a page-turner."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America, November 29, 1986, George W. Hunt, review of American Talk: The Words and Ways of American Dialects; July 30, 1994, George W. Hunt, review of The Literary Life and Other Curiosities, p. 2.

American Heritage, April, 1987, review of American Talk, p. 106.

Booklist, December 15, 1992, review of Whistlin' Dixie: A Dictionary of Southern Expressions, p. 765; October 1, 1993, George Cohen, review of Ladybugs, Tiger Lilies, and Wallflowers: A Gardener's Book of Words, p. 235; October 15, 1994, review of Happy Trails: A Dictionary of Western Expressions, p. 449; December 1, 1997, review of The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, p. 654; September 15, 1998, Roland Green, review of The Road to Appomattox, p. 189; May 1, 2004, review of The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, p. 1573.

Book Report, September-October, 1990, Edna M. Boardman, review of American Literary Anecdotes, British Literary Anecdotes, and World Literary Anecdotes, p. 65.

Canadian Geographic, June-July, 1984, Thomas C. Pullen, review of The Ocean Almanac, Being a Copious Compendium on Sea Creatures, Nautical Lore and Legend, Master Mariners, Naval Disasters, and Myriad Mysteries of the Deep, p. 78.

Christian Century, August 28, 1985, review of The Dictionary of Eponyms: Names That Became Words, p. 778.

Consumers Digest, May-June, 1983, Charlotte Moser, review of 2001 Free Things for the Garden, p. 52.

Cruising World, June, 1989, Jane Tracy, review of The Ocean Almanac, p. 89.

Historian, spring, 2000, David Grimsted, review of The Road to Appomattox, p. 662.

Library Journal, March 15, 1983, review of 2001 Free Things for the Garden, p. 576; January, 1984, Jay R. Kaufman, review of The Ocean Almanac, p. 75; October 1, 1986, Catherine von Schon, review of American Talk, p. 97; December, 1987, Randall Miller, review of The First Day: The Firing on Fort Sumter and the Start of the Civil War, p. 76; Catherine von Schon, review of The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, p. 102; February 1, 1990, Sharon Wong, reviews of American Literary Anecdotes and British Literary Anecdotes, p. 80A; October 15, 1993, Dale Luchsinger, review of Ladybugs, Tiger Lilies, and Wallflowers, p. 60; September 15, 1994, Stephen L. Hupp, review of Happy Trails, p. 65; September 15, 1998, John Carver Edwards, review of The Road to Appomattox, p. 94; December, 2000, Elizabeth Connor, review of The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms: Local Terms and Expressions from Coast to Coast, p. 110; April 15, 2001, Manya Chylinski, review of World English: From Aloha to Zed, p. 76; March 15, 2004, Jamie Anderson, review of The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, p. 66.

National Fisherman, March, 1985, F. F. Kaiser, review of Salty Words, p. 64.

New Republic, February 16, 1987, Louis Menand, review of American Talk, p. 28.

New York Times, September 20, 1981, Joan Lee Faust, review of The Berry Book, p. D43; November 19, 1981, John Leonard, review of The Literary Life and Other Curiosities, p. 23; December 3, 1983, Anatole Broyard, review of More Cunning Than Man: A Social History of Rats and Men, p. 15; December 3, 1986, Michiko Kakutani, review of American Talk, p. 28.

Publishers Weekly, December 17, 1982, review of Animal Crackers, p. 72; February 18, 1983, review of 2001 Free Things for the Garden, p. 127; July 29, 1983, review of More Cunning Than Man, p. 58; January 13, 1984, review of The Ocean Almanac, p. 67; September 26, 1986, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of American Talk, p. 65; October 4, 1993, review of Ladybugs, Tiger Lilies, and Wallflowers, p. 75; August 17, 1998, review of The Road to Appomattox, p. 61.

School Library Journal, August, 2001, J. B. Macdonald, review of The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms, p. 70; October, 1993, Carol P. Clark, review of Whistlin' Dixie, p. 170.

Wilson Library Bulletin, February, 1990, James Rettig, review of American Literary Anecdotes, British Literary Anecdotes, and World Literary Anecdotes, p. 110; November, 1994, James Rettig, review of Happy Trails, p. 92.

Yachting, September, 1984, Chris Caswell, review of Salty Words, p. 46.