Dubbed a “one-man book factory” by the Washington Post, author Paul Dickson — recipient of the Independent’s 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award — is truly prolific. Among his 60+ nonfiction titles are The Dickson Baseball Dictionary; Labels for Locals: What to Call People from Abilene to Zimbabwe; Words from the White House: Words and Phrases Coined or Popularized by America’s Presidents; and, most recently, The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941: The Forgotten Story of How America Forged a Powerful Army Before Pearl Harbor. Reviewer Bob Duffy called the latter “a remarkable work of historical scholarship.” 

Dickson spoke about all sorts of literary matters on Ben Yagoda’s “The Lives They’re Living” podcast earlier this month. Listen to it here.