Robert Lundquist Chapman (December 28, 1920 – January 27, 2002) was an American professor of English literature who edited several dictionaries and

thesauri A thesaurus (plural ''thesauri'' or ''thesauruses'') or synonym dictionary is a reference work for finding synonyms and sometimes antonyms of words. They are often used by writers to help find the best word to express an idea: Synonym dictionar ...

. Chapman was born in Huntington, West Virginia to Curtis W. Chapman, a typewriter mechanic, and Cecelia Lundquist Chapman, a homemaker. Chapman graduated from

Cooley High School Thomas M. Cooley High School is located at the intersection of Hubbell Avenue and Chalfonte Street, on the northwest side of Detroit, Michigan. The three-story, Mediterranean Revival-style facility opened its doors on September 4, 1928. The scho ...

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

in 1939. As a young man, he worked in factories and drove a truck, then enrolled at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

to study English literature. One of his teachers at Michigan was the poet

W.H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

. Chapman's college career was interrupted by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, when he served in Europe with the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. He returned to Michigan afterwards and received his bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees.Elaine Woo.
R. Chapman, 81; Wordsmith, Roget’s Editor
''Los Angeles Times''. February 24, 2002. Retrieved on August 27, 2008. Over the years, Chapman taught English at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, Oswego State Teachers College, Wilkes College, and

Drew University Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three sch ...

, with whom he became a

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

in 1986. He specialized in

medieval literature Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of t ...

, and was jokingly said to resemble Geoffrey Chaucer in appearance. Between his teaching jobs, Chapman held various full-time editing positions. From 1960 to 1964, he worked for Funk & Wagnalls, where he served as a supervising editor for ''Funk & Wagnalls Standard College Dictionary''. He also had a brief stint with

Holt, Rinehart & Winston Holt McDougal is an American publishing company, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, that specializes in textbooks for use in high schools. The Holt name is derived from that of U.S. publisher Henry Holt (1840–1926), co-founder of the ...

, for whom he helped edit the 1966 release of the ''Holt Intermediate Dictionary of American English''."Robert L(undquist) Chapman". ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Gale. June 5, 2003. Retrieved on August 27, 2003. Chapman is arguably best remembered for editing the fourth and fifth editions of ''

Roget's Thesaurus ''Roget's Thesaurus'' is a widely used English-language thesaurus, created in 1805 by Peter Mark Roget (1779–1869), British physician, natural theologian and lexicographer. History It was released to the public on 29 April 1852. Roget was i ...

'', published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

in 1977 and 1992. Chapman chose to retain Roget's original system of numbered categories rather than use an alphabetical system, which he found "jejune". To the fifth edition, he added thirty new categories

Fox, Margalit Margalit Fox (born 1961) is an American writer. She began her career in publishing in the 1980s, before switching to journalism in the 1990s. She joined the obituary department of ''The New York Times'' in 2004, and authored over 1,400 obituarie ...

"Robert Chapman, 81, Roget's Thesaurus Editor"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. February 5, 2002. Accessed March 11, 2011. and over 50,000 new words, such as ''

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

'' and ''

yuppie Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional", is a term coined in the early 1980s for a young professional person working in a city. The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly neu ...

''. Chapman also edited HarperCollins' ''New Dictionary of American Slang'' (1986), the ''Thesaurus of American Slang'' (1989), and ''Roget A to Z'' (1994).

Barbara Ann Kipfer Barbara Ann Kipfer (born 1954) is a lexicographer, linguist, ontologist, and part-time archaeologist. She has written more than 80 books and calendars, including '' 14,000 Things to be Happy About'' ( Workman), which has more than 1.25 million c ...

, who edited the sixth edition of ''Roget's Thesaurus'', noted that Chapman was one of the first

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...

s to regularly use computer databases to study words as used in the popular press. Chapman lived in

Madison, New Jersey Madison is a borough in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 16,937. Located along the Morris & Essex Lines, it is noted for Madison's historic railroad station becoming on ...

, and died in nearby Morristown in 2002 after battling a long illness. He was survived by his wife and three sons. In an obituary, Paul Farhi of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' wrote, "On behalf of blocked writers everywhere, we salute Mr. Chapman. We also doff our caps, raise a toast, sing his praises, acclaim, commend and laud him."Paul Farhi. "Homage to a Man of Many Words". ''

''. February 7, 2002. C01.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapman, Robert 1920 births 2002 deaths American lexicographers United States Army personnel of World War II Drew University faculty People from Madison, New Jersey United States Army soldiers University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Writers from Huntington, West Virginia Writers from Detroit Military personnel from West Virginia Educators from West Virginia American academics of English literature Cooley High School alumni 20th-century lexicographers