Lexicographer Laurence Urdang, managing editor of the first edition of the Random House Dictionary of the English Language and contributor/publisher of over 100 dictionaries and other reference books, died last week from congestive heart failure. The NYT notes of the RH dictionary that it “was the first dictionary to be organized with the aid of a computer — Mr. Urdang presided over a seven-year research and compilation project that, at a cost of $3 million, was, at the time, the largest undertaking in the history of Random House, a company founded in 1925. But it was merely a foundation for […]
