Frederic G. Cassidy

Who is Frederic G. Cassidy?

Frederic G. Cassidy was a Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Chief Editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English from 1962 to his death on June 14, 2000. Born in Kingston, Jamaica on October 10, 1907, Cassidy moved to the United States in 1918. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1930 and obtained a master's degree in 1932. By 1938, Cassidy had earned his doctoral degree at the University of Michigan, and had married Hélène Lucille Monod, a fellow student.

In 1939, Cassidy accepted a lectureship at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and was made full professor in 1950. His first book, published in 1947, was entitled The Place Names of Dane County, Wisconsin. Cassidy then joined with Albert H. Marckwardt to produce the second edition of the Scribner Handbook of English, which was published in 1954. These works were followed in 1961 by a book recording the popular speech of Cassidy's birthplace titled Jamaica Talk and by the Dictionary of Jamaican English, co-edited with Robert B. LePage, in 1967.