author
Sherwin Cody
1868–1959
Best remembered for turning grammar lessons into a mass-market self-improvement project, this American writer and entrepreneur helped generations of readers sharpen their English at home. His famous “Do You Make These Mistakes in English?” ads made language study feel practical, direct, and surprisingly modern.
4 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in Michigan in 1868, Sherwin Cody — born Alpheus Sherwin Cody — became an American writer, educator, and entrepreneur with a gift for making language instruction accessible. After studying at Amherst College, he built a career around teaching people how to write and speak English with more confidence.
He is most closely associated with his long-running home-study courses and with the widely recognized advertising question, “Do You Make These Mistakes in English?” Rather than treating grammar as something stiff or purely academic, he argued for clear, colloquial usage and practical improvement, which helped his courses reach a broad audience.
Cody also wrote books on English, writing, and self-improvement, and his work sat at the crossroads of education, publishing, and early mail-order marketing. He died in 1959, but he remains an interesting figure in the history of popular language instruction in the United States.