View source for Willard R. Espy

{{Short description|American writer (1910–1999)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2014}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name         = Willard R. Espy
| image        = Willard R. Espy (1977).jpg
| alt          =
| pseudonym    =
| birth_name= Willard Richardson Espy
| birth_date   = {{Birth date|1910|12|11}}
| birth_place  = [[Olympia, Washington|Olympia]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]], U.S.
| death_date   = {{Death date and age|1999|02|20|1910|12|11}}
| death_place  = [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.
| occupation   = {{hlist|Writer| poet|philologist}}
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Hilda Cole|1940|<!--end date not included yet-->}}
* {{marriage|Louise Manheim|1962|<!-- Omission per Template:Marriage instructions -->}}
}}
| resting_place= [[Oysterville Cemetery]], [[Oysterville, Washington|Washington]], U.S.
| alma_mater= [[University of Redlands]]
| genre        = {{hlist|[[Light verse]] | [[local history]] }}
| notableworks = ''An Almanac of Words at Play''<br />''Oysterville: Roads to Grandpa's Village''
}}
'''Willard Richardson Espy''' (December 11, 1910{{spaced en dash}}February 20, 1999) was an American editor, [[philologist]], writer, poet, and [[local history|local historian]]. Raised in the seaside village of [[Oysterville, Washington]], Espy later studied at the [[University of Redlands]] in California before becoming an editor in New York City, as well as a contributor to ''[[Reader's Digest]]'', ''[[The New Yorker]]'', ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'', and other publications.
In the 1960s, he began publishing books on [[philology]] as well collections of poetry collections, and became the best-known collector of and commentator on [[word play]] of his time.<ref name="nilsen">{{cite book |isbn=978-3-11-018616-1 |last1=Nilsen |first1=Alleen |last2=Nilsen |first2=Don |editor-first=Victor |editor-last=Raskin |title=The Primer of Humor Research |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2008 |pages=243–80 |chapter=Literature and humor }}</ref> In 1977, he published the national bestseller ''Oysterville: Roads to Grandpa's Village'', a semi-autobiographical novel about his familial heritage in the Oysterville community. Espy died at [[New York Hospital]] in Manhattan in 1999, and was interred at [[Oysterville Cemetery]].
== Early life ==
Espy was born in [[Olympia, Washington|Olympia]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]] in 1910, the sixth of seven children, to Harry Albert Espy (1876–1959) and Helen Medora Espy ({{nee}} Richardson; 1878–1954).{{sfn|Espy|1992|p=258}} His father, a one-time Washington state senator, was of [[Scotch-Irish Americans|Scots-Irish]] descent.{{sfn|Espy|1992|p=37}} His mother was from [[San Francisco]], the daughter of a local preacher.{{sfn|Espy|1992|pp=255–59}}
He and his siblings were raised in the coastal village of [[Oysterville, Washington|Oysterville]], Washington, which had been founded in 1854 by his grandfather, R. H. Espy, a settler who arrived in [[Oregon Territory]] via [[Oregon Trail|The Oregon Trail]].{{sfn|Espy|1992|pp=117–20}} Espy graduated from the [[University of Redlands]] in 1930 with a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] after which he spent a year abroad, enrolling at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] in Paris, planning to study philosophy.<ref name="bestof">{{cite book | title=The Best of An Almanac of Words at Play | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877791454 | url-access=registration | author = Willard R. Espy | publisher=Merriam-Webster | year=1999| isbn=978-0-87779-145-4 }}</ref><ref name="nyt">{{cite news |author-link=Robert McG. Thomas, Jr. |last=Thomas |first=Robert McG. Jr. | title=Willard Espy, Who Delighted in Wordplay, Is Dead at 88 | newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=February 25, 1999 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/25/arts/willard-espy-who-delighted-in-wordplay-is-dead-at-88.html}}</ref> He returned to the United States in 1932, working as a newspaper editor in California, later moving to New York City where he was eventually hired by ''[[Reader's Digest]]'' in 1941. Espy spent next sixteen years working for ''Reader's Digest'' in various positions, including as promotion director.<ref name=nyt/>
==Career==
Espy's writing career took off in the late 1960s; he eventually authored fifteen books on language, and his poetry and articles regularly appeared in ''[[Punch magazine|Punch]]'', ''[[Reader's Digest]]'', ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]'', ''[[The Nation]]'', and ''[[Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics]]''.<ref name="bestof" /><ref name="lookback">{{cite journal |author-link=A. Ross Eckler, Jr. |last1=Eckler |first1=A. Ross |year=2010 |title=Look back! |journal=[[Word Ways|Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics]] |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=228–229 |url=http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/wordways/vol43/iss3/33/}}</ref> Espy earned praise from contemporary critics such as [[Louis Untermeyer]] and [[John Chancellor]].<ref name=nyrev/> Summarizing Espy's writing, critic [[Alistair Cooke]] wrote:
{{quote|To Willard Espy the English language is what a football is to [[Joe Namath]], a golf ball to [[Arnold Palmer]], the male of the species to [[Zsa Zsa Gabor]]: a wonderful object to manipulate, to flog, to coax and have a barrel of fun with.<ref name=nyrev>{{cite book|title=The New York Times Saturday Review of Books and Art|volume=2|year=1976|page=94|publisher=Arno Press}}</ref>}}
Later in life, Espy divided his time between [[Manhattan]] and his home in Oysterville, and wrote nationally bestselling books on local history, including ''[[Oysterville: Roads to Grandpa's Village]]'' (1977) and ''Skulduggery on Shoalwater Bay'' (1998).<ref name="bestof" /> Two of his books on wordplay, ''The Game of Words'' and ''An Almanac of Words at Play'', were honored at the [[Governor's Writers Day Awards]] (now the Washington State Book Awards),<ref name="washington">{{cite web |url=http://www.sos.wa.gov/library/GovernorsWritersAwardsattheWashingtonStateLibrary19662000.aspx |title=Governor's Writers Day Awards at the Washington State Library, 1966–2000  |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=WA State Library |publisher=Washington Secretary of State |access-date=November 23, 2014}}</ref> and the latter was a national bestseller.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[New York (magazine)|New York Magazine]]|page=159|date=November 14, 1983|title=The Wonderful World of Words|issn=0028-7369}}</ref> He was also a contributing writer for ''[[The New Yorker]]''<ref>Espy, Willard R. (1986) "All End-Letters Different in a Poem," ''[[The New Yorker]]'' (Word Ways): Vol. 19 : Iss. 3 , Article 3.</ref> and other publications.
==Death==
[[File:Willard Espy grave.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1|Espy's grave at Oysterville Cemetery]]
Espy died aged 88 at [[New York Hospital]] in Manhattan on February 20, 1999.<ref name="nyt" /><ref name=npr>{{cite web|work=[[National Public Radio]]|title=Willard Espy Obituary|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1046126|access-date=February 27, 2018}}</ref> He is interred in a family plot in Oysterville Cemetery.<ref name=livelong>{{cite web|title=Live long and...|work=Sydney of Oysterville|date=June 10, 2012|url=http://sydneyofoysterville.com/category/willard-r-espy/page/3/|access-date=February 25, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20180227063848/http://sydneyofoysterville.com/2012/live-long-and/|archive-date=February 27, 2018}}</ref> His second wife Louise, a native of New York, died in November 2011, and was interred beside him.<ref name=livelong/>
==Legacy==
The Espy Foundation was established in 1998; the non-profit foundation, based out of Espy's home in Oysterville, Washington, served as a retreat space for artists and writers in the Pacific Northwest.<ref name=end>{{cite web|work=Chinook Observer|url=http://www.chinookobserver.com/20101214/end-of-an-era-for-the-espy-foundation|title=End of an Era for the Espy Foundation|date=December 14, 2010|access-date=February 27, 2018|author=Gable, Cate}}</ref> In December 2010, the foundation officially closed.<ref name=end/>
Espy's light verse has been compared to that of [[Lewis Carroll]], [[W. S. Gilbert]], [[Ogden Nash]] and [[Cole Porter]].<ref name="nyt" />
==Bibliography==
* ''The Game of Words'' (1971) {{ISBN|0-7234-0173-X}}
* ''Oysterville: Roads to Grandpa's Village'' (1976) {{ISBN|0-517-52196-2}}
* ''The Game of Words'' (1972) {{ISBN|0-448-01196-4}}
* ''Omak Me Yours Tonight, or, Ilwaco million miles for one of your smiles: A Ballard of Washington State'' (1973) {{ISBN|0-9634294-1-8}}
* ''An Almanac of Words at Play'' (1975) {{ISBN|0-517-52463-5}}
* ''The Life and Works of Mr. Anonymous'' (1977) {{ISBN|0-380-45047-X}}
* ''O Thou Improper, Thou Uncommon Noun'' (1978) {{ISBN|0-517-53511-4}}
* ''Say it My Way: How to avoid certain pitfalls of spoken English together with a decidedly informal history of how our language rose (or fell)'' (1980) {{ISBN|0-14-005733-1}}
* ''Another Almanac of Words at Play'' (1981) {{ISBN|0-233-97288-9}}
* ''The Wars of the Words'' (1980)
* ''A Children's Almanac of Words at Play'' (1982) {{ISBN|0-340-34852-6}}
* ''Have A Word on Me: A Celebration of Language'' (1984) {{ISBN|0-671-25255-0}}
* ''Espygrams: Anagram Verse'' (1982) {{ISBN|0-517-54598-5}}
* ''Word Puzzles: Anagrams from America's Favorite Logophile'' (1983) {{ISBN|0-934878-31-5}}
* ''The Garden of Eloquence: A Rhetorical Bestiary'' (1983) {{ISBN|0-06-181256-0}}
* ''Espygrams II: 80 New Anagram Verses'' (1984) {{ISBN|0-517-54757-0}}
* ''Words to Rhyme With'' (1986) {{ISBN|0-8160-4313-2}}
* ''The Word's Gotten Out'' (1989) {{ISBN|0-517-07940-2}}
* ''Skullduggery on Shoalwater Bay'' (1998)
* ''The Best of An Almanac of Words at Play'' (1999) {{ISBN|0-87779-145-7}}
==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
==Works cited==
* {{cite book|last=Espy|first=Willard R.|title=Oysterville: Roads to Grandpa's Village|year=1992|orig-date=1977|publisher=[[University of Washington Press]]|isbn=978-0-517-52196-0|url=https://archive.org/details/oystervilleroads0000espy}}
==External links==
{{commons}}
* [https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n79122655/ Willard Richardson Espy] at [[WorldCat]]
{{Portal bar|Literature|Language|United States|New York City}}
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[[Category:American book editors]]
[[Category:American humorists]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent]]
[[Category:American male poets]]
[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:1999 deaths]]
[[Category:Reader's Digest]]
[[Category:The Atlantic (magazine) people]]
[[Category:Punch (magazine) people]]
[[Category:The Nation (U.S. magazine) people]]
[[Category:Writers from Olympia, Washington]]
[[Category:University of Redlands alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American poets]]
[[Category:People from Pacific County, Washington]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American philologists]]