Patricia T. O'Conner, a former staff editor at The New York Times Book Review, has written five books about the English language--the bestselling Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English; Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language (with Stewart Kellerman); Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know About Writing; Woe Is I Jr.: The Younger Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English; and You Send Me: Getting It Right When You Write Online (with Stewart Kellerman). O'Conner was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on Feb. 19, 1949. She graduated in 1971 from Grinnell College and did graduate work in urban journalism at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
