Author Credits Writing Success to Outliving His Competitors!

There is a decided advantage to outliving your writing peers, says author Boyé Lafayette De Mente, internationally known for his books on the business practices, cultures and languages of China, Japan, Korea and Mexico,  and on the “business, political and social foibles, failures and idiocies” of Americans.

 Now approaching his 83rd birthday, De Mente published his first book, Japanese Simplified, in 1951 while he was serving in the Tokyo headquarters of the Army Security Agency [ASA], an intelligence branch of the U.S. Army.

 In the mid-1950s he became the editor of the Tokyo-based trade magazine The IMPORTER. His second book, Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, did not come out until 1959. That was followed in 1961 by How to Do Business in Japan and in 1962 by Bachelor’s Japan and The Tourist & the Real Japan—all pioneer works in their fields.

 De Mente retired from salaried employment in 1962, and has since averaged 1.5 books a year for a total of 74 titles—some 50 of which are still in print, including the 8th edition of Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business.

 He says that much of his success as an author resulted from the fact that all of the book-writing foreign correspondents and businessmen residents of Asia who were active in the 1930s and 40s have passed on and their books are long out-of-date, and most of the new crop of writers who came along in the 1950s and 60s are also either dead or no longer publishing.

 “A new crop of writers began appearing in the 1970s and 80s but the majority of them have been rewriters rather than authors of original material, particularly those who came from academia,” he added.

 In the 1980s and 90s De Mente summed up the insights he had gained about the mindset and behavior of the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Mexicans in a series of “cultural code word” books that explain why they think and behave the way they do.

 The books consist of detailed glossaries of the cultural nuances and uses of several hundred key words in each language—words he says that created and control the traditional etiquette and ethics of the people.

 De Mente maintains that it is key words in the languages of people that program them to think and behave the way they do, and that knowledge of the cultural nuances and uses of these words is essential for understanding them

His primary publishers are McGraw-Hill, the Periplus-Tuttle-Berkeley Publishing Group, Phoenix Books/Publishers—an imprint he himself created in the late 1960s—and over a dozen Asian, Latin and European publishers that have brought a number of his books out in Chinese, Croatian, French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

His latest book: HOW & WHY MALE DOMINANCE PLAGUES HUMANITY! – The Ultimate Challenge for Females!

 Authorsonlinebookshop.com  includes a list and synopses of his books, in both digital and print editions, that are available from Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble and other booksellers.

When Men Get Hard on the Bottom They Get Soft on Top!

This is a collection of smart, wise, witty and sometimes humorous quotes by author Boye Lafayette De Mente, known for his 70-plus books on the business practices, cultures, foibles and languages of China, Japan, Korea, Mexico and the U.S. See more details on BarnesandNobles Nook Book corner and Amazon’s Kindle ebook store.

Front Cover of Book of Quotations

Author Blames Male Dominance for America’s Problems

BOOK REVIEW:

 CULTURAL FAILURES THAT ARE DESTROYING THE AMERICAN DREAM! – A Challenge for 21st Century Parents Teachers & Politicians, by Boyé Lafayette De Mente. Phoenix Books/Publishers. ISBN. 0-91477817X. Available from Amazon.com. Print edition $14.95; digital edition $7.95.

    In his latest book, CULTURAL FAILURES THAT ARE DESTROYING THE AMERICAN DREAM!: A Challenge for 21st Century Parents, Teachers & Politicians, Boyé Lafayette De Mente—internationally known for his cultural-insight books on China, Japan, Korea and Mexico—says that dramatic changes in the economic, political, and social conditions in the United States in the 20th century have resulted in an equally dramatic lowering of ethical and moral standards in all areas of the culture.

Describing the book “a rant, a screed” on the present state of American culture, De Mente says that by the first decade of the 21st century American culture was characterized by “failed religious moralities, a new profit morality, a cancerous excess-consumption syndrome,  gutter-level moral standards in entertainment, advertising, politics and the news media, and a dysfunctional public education system.”

De Mente blames the still primitive mindset of males for all of these problems—a mindset that he says is based on a sex-based superiority complex, tribalism, territorialism, racism and the irrational dogma of man-made religions.

“Most of the violence, destruction and other harmful actions that have distinguished mankind since day one can be traced directly to these aspects of the male mind,” he said.

The book pinpoints and describes failures in all of the key areas of American culture along with the so far ineffective attempts to institute reforms, and includes a series of recommendations for returning sanity and sense to the culture.

De Mente also details the irrational and anti-human elements of god-based religions and describes how emerging technology is becoming the new god.

 He recommends that American parents and educators adopt the 26 principles and educational goals of Japan’s famous samurai warrior class as the foundation of efforts to reform the basics of American culture.

De Mente is the author of 50-plus pioneer books on the business practices, social behavior and languages of the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Mexicans. He has also written extensively about the faults and failures of humanity in general, including “Why Ignorance, Stupidity & Violence Continue to Plague Mankind!”

A full list and synopses of his books can be seen on AuthorsOnlineBookshop.Com.