Portland Public Library

Alphabetical, how every letter tells a story, Michael Rosen

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 415-417) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Alphabetical

bibliography

881665990

Michael Rosen

how every letter tells a story

"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

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