Green's published books have primarily focussed onsixties counterculture. After publishingAll Dressed Up: The Sixties and the Counterculture (1998) he was taken to court for libel by both former BeatleGeorge Harrison and artistCaroline Coon, and the book was withdrawn for 12 months.[2] In June 2000, Coon received damages of £40,000, plus £33,000 costs, from publisherRandom House, and received an official apology from Green for making false claims.[3]
The book was later republished with the libellous passages removed.[4]
The single-volumeChambers Slang Dictionary (Chambers Harrap) was first published in 1998; a second edition appeared in October 2008.[5]
Green's most substantial work in this field isGreen's Dictionary of Slang: a three-volume slang work which traces the history of English slang vocabulary over the last five centuries, with citations to printed works going back to the 1500s.[6] Written over seventeen years beginning in 1993, the print edition was published in 2010; an online edition went live in 2016.[7] It was awarded the 2012Dartmouth Medal, an annual award from the Reference and User Services Association recognising the most outstanding reference work of the year.[8]
Green has been described as the English-speaking world's leading lexicographer of slang,[9] and has even been described as "the most acclaimedBritish lexicographer sinceJohnson".[by whom?][10]
