The Buzz...About Books

…nothing is more fatal to maidenly delicacy of speech than the run of a good library. 
Robertson Davies, Tempest-Tost

I was a mere child when I began my library career and I soon discovered that my co-workers would sometimes use "decidedly unparliamentary" language in the staff room.  Swearing librarians just seemed wrong somehow.  Later I came to realize that some people who love words, love the “bad” ones, too.  As Robertson Davies observed, books can be a bad influence on a civil tongue.

Here is a selection of books about profanity available at Toronto Public Library:

Expletive Deleted: a Good Look at Bad Words by Ruth Wajnryb
Australian linguist Wajnryb provides both research and wit in her examination of foul language.

The F-Word by Jesse Sheidlower
Now in its third edition, the book details the history and usage of the “most controversial word in the English language”.

Filthy English: The How, Where, When and What of Everyday Swearing by Pete Silverton
Silverton examines the British evolution into a more "linguistically liberal" society.

Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language by Keith Allan and Kate Burridge
The authors provide insight into the role of taboo language in everyday life.

Seven Dirty Words: the Life and Crimes of George Carlin by James Sullivan
In 1973, a radio station broadcast a George Carlin monologue called "Filthy Words". The subsequent uproar led to a Supreme Court decision affirming the federal government's power to regulate speech on radio and television broadcasts in the United States.