Toasts: Over 1,500 of the Best Toasts, Sentiments, Blessings, and Graces

by Paul Dickson

For nearly thirty years, Paul Dickson's Toasts has been the the perfect reference for any occasion where one needs to raise a glass. Organized by category, it contains sayings famous and profound, suitable and sentimental. Covering births, weddings, graduations, and other events both major and minor, Dickson also provides a history of the toast, and a guide on how to do it well. Revised for the first time since 1991, this new edition of Toasts is as useful as ever.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Writing, Wine, Canon

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Paul Dickson is the author of more than 45 nonfiction books and hundreds of magazine articles. Although he has written on a variety of subjects from ice cream to kite flying to electronic warfare, he now concentrates on writing about the American language, baseball and 20th century history.

Dickson, born in Yonkers, NY, graduated from Wesleyan University in 1961 and was honored as a Distinguished Alumnae of that institution in 2001. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy and later worked as a reporter for McGraw-Hill Publications.
Since 1968, he has been a full-time freelance writer contributing articles to various magazines and newspapers, including Smithsonian, Esquire, The Nation, Town & Country, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post and writing numerous books on a wide range of subjects.

He received a University Fellowship for reporters from the American Political Science Association to do his first book, Think Tanks (1971). For his book, The Electronic Battlefield (1976), about the impact automatic weapons systems have had on modern warfare, he received a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism to support his efforts to get certain Pentagon files declassified.

His book The Bonus Army: An American Epic, written with Thomas B. Allen, was published by Walker and Co. on February 1, 2005. It tells the dramatic but largely forgotten story of the approximately 45,000 World War I veterans who marched on Washington in the summer of 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, to demand early payment of a bonus promised them for their wartime service and of how that march eventually changed the course of American history and led to passage of the GI Bill—the lasting legacy of the Bonus Army. A documentary based on the book aired on PBS stations in May 2006 and an option for a feature film based on the book has been sold.

Dickson's most recent baseball book, The Hidden Language of Baseball: How Signs and Sign Stealing Have Influenced the Course of our National Pastime, also by Walker and Co, was first published in May, 2003 and came out in paperback in June, 2005. It follows other works of baseball reference including The Joy of Keeping Score, Baseballs Greatest Quotations, Baseball the Presidents Game and The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary, now in it's second edition. A third edition is currently in the works. The original Dickson Baseball Dictionary was awarded the 1989 Macmillan-SABR Award for Baseball Research.

Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, another Walker book, came out in October, 2001 and was subsequently issued in paperback by Berkeley Books. Like his first book, Think Tanks (1971), and his latest, Sputnik, was born of his first love: investigative journalism. Dickson is working on a feature documentary about Sputnik with acclaimed documentarians David Hoffmanand Kirk Wolfinger.

Two of his older language books, Slang and Label For Locals came out in the fall of 2006 in new and expanded versions.

Dickson is a founding member and former president of Washington Independent Writers and a member of the National Press Club. He is a contributing editor at Washingtonian magazine and a consulting editor at Merriam-Webster, Inc. and is represented by Premier Speakers Bureau, Inc. and the Jonathan Dolger Literary agency.

He currently lives in Garrett Park, Maryland with his wife Nancy who works with him as his first line editor, and financial manager.

Reviews

[Vince M · Rating 2 out of 5]

most of these were archaic and cringe

[Rebecca Newman · Rating 3 out of 5]

"May your nose run and your feet smell."

A fun, light read- the curses selection made me laugh out loud sometimes.

We should toast more often as a society!

[Brian Koser]

Always fun to flip through

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an absolutely delightful little book to read, especially during the holiday season. The author has collected 1,500 toasts and grouped them in categories. He also has included at brief history of toasting and some funny stories about historically good and bad toasts.

One of my favorites: "May you die in bed at ninety-five years, shot by a jealous husband/wife."

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy reading collections of sayings and quotes, and just finished this book of toasts by Paul Dickson. It was enjoyable, and as always I picked up a few things. Here are a few favorites.

"May we have more and more friends, and need them less and less"

"Here's champagne to our real friends and real pain to our sham friends"

"Good luck till we are tired of it."

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun and easy read that is both useful in the event you need to prepare for a toast that adds a little insight to the tradition