Biography:

Lexicographer; editor, lecturer. Born– Jackson, Ala., February 12, 1891. Parents– James Waldrum and Frances Isabella McLeod. Married– Georgia Jane Garrett, August 7, 1919. Children– Two. Education– A.B., Southern University, 1915; A.M., University of Alabama, 1917; Ph.D., Harvard, 1936. U.S. Navy, WWI.  Employed as instructor, Scarritt-Morrisville (Mo.) College, 1915-1916; high school principal, Ala., 1919-1927; instructor, University of Chicago, 1926-1931; staff, Dictionary of American English, 1925-1944; lecturer, Department of Linguistics, 1951-1957; editor, Dictionary Department, 1944-1956. Member– editorial staff, Webster New World Dictionary, after 1957. Honors– Loubat Award, 1953.  Died February 14, 1985.

Source:

Marquis who’s who online; ancestry.com; obituary, New York Times

Publication(s):

American Words. Cleveland; World, 1959.

The Beginning of American English. Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 1963.

A Dictionary of Americanism. Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 1951.

Dictionary of Selected Americanisms. Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 1966.

Some Sources of Southernism. University, Ala.; University of Alabama Press, 1948.

A Survey of English Dictionaries. London; Oxford University Press, 1933.

Teaching to Read Historically Considered. Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 1966.

Words; How to Know Them. New York; Holt, 1956.