Alphabetical : how every letter tells a story / Michael Rosen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rosen, Michael, 1946-

Contributor:

Classes of 1883 and 1884 Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Alphabet--History.

Alphabet.

History.

Alphabet in literature.

Writing.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xv, 431 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : Counterpoint, [2015]

Summary:

"How on Earth did we fix upon our twenty-six letters, what do they really mean, and how did we come to write them down in the first place? Michael Rosen takes you on an unforgettable adventure through the history of the alphabet in twenty-six vivid chapters, fizzing with personal anecdotes and fascinating facts. Starting with the mysterious Phoenicians and how sounds first came to be written down, he races on to show how nonsense poems work, pins down the strange story of OK, traces our five lost letters and tackles the tyranny of spelling, among many many other things. His heroes of the alphabet range from Edward Lear to Phyllis Pearsall (the inventor of the A-Z), and from the two scribes of Beowulf to rappers. Each chapter takes on a different subject - whether it's codes, umlauts or the writing of dictionaries. Rosen's enthusiasm for letters positively leaps off the page, whether it's the story of his life told through the typewriters he's owned or a chapter on jokes written in a string of gags and word games. This is the book for anyone who's ever wondered why Hawaiian only has a thirteen-letter alphabet or how exactly to write down the sound of a wild raspberry"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The story of A: A is for alphabet

The story of B: B is for battledore

The story of C: C is for ciphers

The story of D: D is for disappeared letters

The story of E: E is for e. e. cummings

The story of F: F is for fonts

The story of G: G is for Greek

The story of H: H is for h-aspiration

The story of I: I is for improvisation

The story of J: J is for jokes

The story of K: K is for Korean

The story of L: L is for LSD

The story of M: M is for music and memory

The story of N: N is for nonsense

The (true) story of O: O is for OK

The story of P: P is for Pitman

The story of Q: Q is for qwerty

The story of R: R is for rhyme

The story of S: S is for signs and sign systems

The story of T: T is for txtspk

The story of U: U is for umlauts

The story of V: V is for Vikings

The story of W: W is for Webster

The story of X: X marks the spot

The story of Y: Y is for yellow

The story of Z: Z is for zipcodes

The Oulipo olympics.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 415-417) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Classes of 1883 and 1884 Fund.

ISBN:

1619024837

9781619024830

OCLC:

881665990

Publisher Number:

99964658129