Willard R. Espy

Willard Richardson Espy (11 December 1910 – 20 February 1999) was a U.S. editor, philologist, writer, and poet. He is particularly remembered for his national bestseller Oysterville – Roads to Grandpa's Village, and for his anthology of light verse and word play, An Almanac of Words at Play, and its two sequels. His writing and poetry regularly appeared in Punch, Reader's Digest, and Word Ways.

His daughter Freddy Medora Espy was the first wife of the writer and editor George Plimpton.

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)