Rick Bayan
Encyclopedia
Richard Paul Bayan is a U.S. author, webmaster and advertising copywriter, best known for his advertising thesaurus Words That Sell, his trenchant satirical lexicon, The Cynic's Dictionary, and his darkly humorous online essays.
The son of Armenian immigrants from Istanbul, Bayan was born and raised in New Brunswick, New Jersey
. He earned his B.A. from Rutgers College, where he majored in history and graduated with honors. Finding himself virtually unemployable, he added a Master's in journalism from the University of Illinois
.
Bayan briefly worked as a staff writer at Time-Life Books. His first essays, The Liberal Artist at Leisure and The Liberal Artist at Work, appeared in National Review in 1976-77. Shortly after that, he was approached by Allen Weakland, who was Founding Editor and Publisher of The New American Review: A Journal of Civility and the Arts, and he became the Assistant Editor of that short-lived journal, as well as contributing extremely concise and biting satirical articles to it. While working as chief copywriter at Barron's Educational Series
from 1978 to 1985, Bayan authored Words That Sell http://www.amazon.com/dp/0071467858/(1984, revised 2006), an advertising and marketing thesaurus that became a standard reference work in its field.
From 1985 through 1999 Bayan served as copy chief at Day-Timer
s, Inc.http://www.daytimer.com There he won six advertising awards and wrote his first book of humor, The Cynic's Dictionaryhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0785817131/ (1994).
Bayan created The Cynic's Sanctuary (i-cynic.com)http://www.i-cynic.com in 1996. He quit his job at Day-Timers in 1999 to write full-time, including a weekly column, Some Cynical Guy, for Upbeat Online from 2000 through 2002.
In 2001 Bayan married Anne Downey and moved to Philadelphia. There he wrote More Words That Sellhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0071418539/(2003) and expanded the original Words That Sell. His first child, Guy, was born in 2004.
Bayan was profiled in Psychology Today
in 2006. In 2007 he launched The New Moderate http://newmoderate.com, a website designed to promote centrist ideas in a political climate dominated by hostile exchanges between the right and left. The site is an expression of Bayan's "Positive Cynicism," a philosophy that espouses the harnessing of cynical alienation for productive social goals. The first collection of Bayan's essays will be published in 2011.
The son of Armenian immigrants from Istanbul, Bayan was born and raised in New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
. He earned his B.A. from Rutgers College, where he majored in history and graduated with honors. Finding himself virtually unemployable, he added a Master's in journalism from the University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
.
Bayan briefly worked as a staff writer at Time-Life Books. His first essays, The Liberal Artist at Leisure and The Liberal Artist at Work, appeared in National Review in 1976-77. Shortly after that, he was approached by Allen Weakland, who was Founding Editor and Publisher of The New American Review: A Journal of Civility and the Arts, and he became the Assistant Editor of that short-lived journal, as well as contributing extremely concise and biting satirical articles to it. While working as chief copywriter at Barron's Educational Series
Barron's Educational Series
Barron's Educational Series, Inc. is an American test preparation company, founded in 1941 as a publisher of materials to help students to prepare for college entrance examinations, and that offers online college entrance exam preparation classes...
from 1978 to 1985, Bayan authored Words That Sell http://www.amazon.com/dp/0071467858/(1984, revised 2006), an advertising and marketing thesaurus that became a standard reference work in its field.
From 1985 through 1999 Bayan served as copy chief at Day-Timer
Day-Timer
Day-Timers, Inc. is a corporation based in East Texas, Pennsylvania. The primary product line consists of various styles of calendars and dated planners but they also provide many other products with a focus on time management and personal productivity...
s, Inc.http://www.daytimer.com There he won six advertising awards and wrote his first book of humor, The Cynic's Dictionaryhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0785817131/ (1994).
Bayan created The Cynic's Sanctuary (i-cynic.com)http://www.i-cynic.com in 1996. He quit his job at Day-Timers in 1999 to write full-time, including a weekly column, Some Cynical Guy, for Upbeat Online from 2000 through 2002.
In 2001 Bayan married Anne Downey and moved to Philadelphia. There he wrote More Words That Sellhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0071418539/(2003) and expanded the original Words That Sell. His first child, Guy, was born in 2004.
Bayan was profiled in Psychology Today
Psychology Today
Psychology Today is a bi-monthly magazine published in the United States. It is a psychology-based magazine about relationships, health, and related topics written for a mass audience of non-psychologists. Psychology Today was founded in 1967 and features articles on such topics as love,...
in 2006. In 2007 he launched The New Moderate http://newmoderate.com, a website designed to promote centrist ideas in a political climate dominated by hostile exchanges between the right and left. The site is an expression of Bayan's "Positive Cynicism," a philosophy that espouses the harnessing of cynical alienation for productive social goals. The first collection of Bayan's essays will be published in 2011.