3 - Avis Pulls It Off

Summary

This chapter focusses on Avis rescuing the faltering dictionary project after Lovell's unexpected death in 1960, after only two years at the helm of the project. It explores the intellectual background of Avis at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where he met his future wife Faith Hutchison, who was one of the most educated women in all of Canada at the time. It traces Avis' academic socialization to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he was trained and surrounded by the best linguists and dialectologists of their day. Avis, just like Lovell, died relatively young of a heart attack, and there are a number of further parallels and differences between the two men that are highlighted. Parallels between Avis and Lovell on the one hand and Noah Webster and Henry L. Mencken, the American spokespeople for linguistic autonomy, round off the chapter.