Word connoisseur Eugene Ehrlich was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 21, 1922. He attended the City College of New York where he studied languages and education. After graduating, he served in the army as an interrogator of Japanese prisoners. Afterwards, he did graduate work at Teachers College of Columbia University, taught at Farleigh-Dickinson University, worked as a verbal presentation consultant at Bell Labs, taught part time at Columbia University School of General Studies, and was a consultant for defense contractors. His first book, How to Study Better and Get Higher Marks, was published in 1961. He wrote over 40 dictionaries, thesauruses and phrase books. His works included The… Highly Selective Thesaurus for the Extraordinarily Literate, Les Bons Mots: How to Amaze Tout le Monde with Everyday French, and You've Got Ketchup on Your Muumuu: An A-to-Z Guide to English Words From Around the World. He died on April 5, 2008 at the age of 85.