Ladislav Zgusta

Ladislav Zgusta was a Czech-American historical linguist, lexicologist, and lexicographer, who wrote one of the first textbooks on lexicography. After working as a laborer and a railroad employee in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, Zgusta earned several doctorates from Czech universities. Threatened with detention during the Prague Spring, his family escaped to the United States through India while posing as tourists, with assistance from the American embassy in New Delhi and the support of his colleagues in the United States.