True Colour - The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Colour--from Azure to Zinc Pink

Whilst editing Merriam-Webster dictionaries, lexicographer Kerry Stamper found herself increasingly fascinated by Webster's Third International Dictionary, where a whole world of imaginative and evocative colour definitions was bursting off the pages, demanding her further investigation.

The life of the originator of these 'colourful' definitions, one I H Godlove, a brilliant if erratic scientist hired by the dictionary as an 'expert' in a rapidly modernising twentieth century, becomes the jump-off point for a fascinating odyssey into the world of colour science, colour psychology and colour production. All of which sets the author on a quest for the elusive meaning of colour - and results in a kaleidoscopic journey through the history of hues and the story of the obsessive genius behind many of the definitions we use today. 

Hardback, 320 pages
Measures 21.6 x 15 x 2.7cm