The Future Dictionary of America

by Jonathan Safran Foer

Hardcover, 2005

Status

Available

Call number

818.60203

Genres

Collection

Publication

Common Assets Action Fund (2005), Hardcover, 250 pages

Description

This book was conceived by Jonathan Safran Foer, Dave Eggers, Nicole Krauss, and the staff of McSweeney's as a way to bring over a hundred authors together to promote progressive causes in the November 2004 election. An imagining of what a dictionary might look like about thirty years hence, when the world's problems are solved and our current president is a distant memory, the book is by turns funny, outraged, utopian, and dyspeptic. 100 percent of the proceeds will go to a mix of political organizations to support progressive candidates in the upcoming elections. Over 150 writers contributed to the book, including: Stephen King, Robert Olen Butler, Glen David Gold, Richard Powers, Susan Straight, Sarah Vowell, Billy Collins, C.K. Williams, Colson Whitehead, Donald Antrim, Jonathan Franzen, Edwidge Danticat, Edward Hirsch, Joyce Carol Oates, Katha Pollitt, Padgett Powell, Paul Auster, Anthony Swofford, Julia Alvarez, Susan Choi, Jim Shepard, Aimee Bender, and Art Spiegelman. Released in partnership with Barsuk Records, the book will include a CD compilation, with exclusive songs by the best musicians working. Among them: David Byrne, R.E.M., Death Cab for Cutie, Sleater-Kinney, Flaming Lips, Tom Waits, Bright Eyes, They Might Be Giants, Nada Surf, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member chellerystick
A humorous anthology that has many authors projecting present trends and counter-trends into a "devil's dictionary" of the future.
LibraryThing member glade1
This was a fun book, and includes a CD of songs by lots of good artists. It is a bit dated, however, having come out in 2004. I kept thinking, "What must these people have been doing during the 2016 election?!" As upset as they were about W, Trump probably gave them an aneurysm. Lots of fun "new"
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words, although some really wander off the path. Definitely worth a read.
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Awards

Independent Publisher Book Awards (Finalist — Humor — 2005)

Original publication date

2004

Physical description

250 p.; 9.3 inches

ISBN

1932416420 / 9781932416428
Page: 0.5896 seconds