In my role as curator of the wwftd archives, I am often asked where I find these curiosities. The answer to this is as varied as the words themselves and involves a shelf full of resources, contributions from subscribers, and (yes) even perusing the occasional dictionary. But true reading pleasure comes with the discovery of a new, unusual word whilst reading ordinary(!) books. Some of my favorite sources over the years that I've been doing this include folks like William F. Buckley, whose English vocabulary may be the most prodigious of any person alive today (and he uses it bombastically and precisely, all at once); Vladamir Nabakov (the Russian-born novelist), who exhibits a similar aptitude for eloquence and an astonishing capacity for the English lexicon; Thomas Pynchon, who dredges up rarities and makes them his own (e.g., he makes wonderful use of 'musaceous' in "Gravity's Rainbow"); Gene Wolfe, who exhumes archaisms and obsolete words to make the settings of his science-fantasies (e.g., "Book of the New Sun") ring true; and James Joyce, who needs no further comment. I'm told that writers such as Borges and Anais Nin should be read in their original texts, but even the translations can be linguistically rewarding.

I'd like to hear from others... which writers move you (to the dictionary) in their use of language?