author
Walton Burgess
Best known for a brisk, practical guide to everyday English, this 19th-century author wrote for readers who wanted to speak and write with more confidence. The result is a compact book full of common mistakes, plain corrections, and a strong belief that learning clearly matters.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Walton Burgess is credited as the author of Five Hundred Mistakes of Daily Occurrence in Speaking, Pronouncing, and Writing the English Language, Corrected, a handbook first published in 1856. Records from Project Gutenberg, Google Books, Open Library, and The Online Books Page all point to this work as the main book securely associated with the name.
The book was designed as a practical aid rather than a scholarly treatise. In its preface, Burgess explains that it was meant for ordinary readers who regularly misused common English words and forms, and who wanted direct help improving the way they spoke and wrote.
Reliable biographical details about Burgess himself are scarce, so it is safest to remember him through the work he left behind: a concise, accessible language guide from the mid-19th century that aimed to make correct English feel useful and within reach.