CRAIG CONLEY (Prof. Oddfellow) is recognized by Encarta as “America’s most creative and diligent scholar of letters, words and punctuation.” He has been called a “language fanatic” by Page Six gossip columnist Cindy Adams, a “cult hero” by Publisher’s Weekly, a “monk for the modern age” by George Parker, and “a true Renaissance man of the modern era, diving headfirst into comprehensive, open-minded study of realms obscured or merely obscure” by Clint Marsh. An eccentric scholar, Conley’s ideas are often decades ahead of their time. He invented the concept of the “virtual pet” in 1980, fifteen years before the debut of the popular “Tamagotchi” in Japan. His virtual pet, actually a rare flower, still thrives and has reached an incomprehensible size. Conley’s website is OneLetterWords.com.
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"[T]he hazards of scholarship and mortality: he was overwhelmed by the weight of documentation, by his own erudition, by overambition." —Mark Goldie, "Roger Morrice and the History of Puritanism," Religious Identities in Britain, 1660-1832
An illustration by Pamela Colman Smith from a 1903 issue of The Reader magazine. The caption reads: "Led on by courage and death with sorrow at his feet."
The serpents are emblazoned with death, destruction, murder, mischief, madness, brutality, robbery, and blasphemy. From The Working Man's Friend and Family Instructor (1833). The caption reads: "Will you take a glass?"