The Right Word

Tools of the trade-artists have their palettes and easels, sculptors their

chisels and knives, but writers? Their tool kit is that cornucopia of words,

overflowing in richness yet ever so challenging in the care and precision it

demands of those who dare employ them.

This latest volume of works by members of The Literary Club offers

examples of the beauty, the power and sheer magic of words artfully

crafted. On display are stories and poems reflecting the labors of a group

of club members embarked on that elusive search for the right word

to express their thoughts and ideas. One of the essayists even wonders

whether finding the right one is indeed an impossible task.

Leading off the collection is a poetic set of meditations on words

by the club's unofficial poet laureate, Richard Hague. Then readers are

taken on literary adventures by others-to an eatery called Irk's, to a

classroom encounter with mud, to a soiree with Madame X, and much

more. Finally, we dip into the club's archives, now spanning 175 years of

writing, for some words about celebrated writers who should have been

enrolled in our membership but somehow weren't.

We hope that readers of this volume will savor the outpouring of

words as much as those did who assembled them.