Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, & Other Typographical Marks - Rilegato

Houston, Keith

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0393064425 ISBN 13: 9780393064421

Casa editrice: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2013

Riassunto

A charming and indispensable tour of two thousand years of the written word, Shady Characters weaves a fascinating trail across the parallel histories of language and typography.Whether investigating the asterisk (*) and dagger (†)—which alternately illuminated and skewered heretical verses of the early Bible—or the at sign (@), which languished in obscurity for centuries until rescued by the Internet, Keith Houston draws on myriad sources to chart the life and times of these enigmatic squiggles, both exotic (¶) and everyday (&).From the Library of Alexandria to the halls of Bell Labs, figures as diverse as Charlemagne, Vladimir Nabokov, and George W. Bush cross paths with marks as obscure as the interrobang (?) and as divisive as the dash (—). Ancient Roman graffiti, Venetian trading shorthand, Cold War double agents, and Madison Avenue round out an ever more diverse set of episodes, characters, and artifacts.Richly illustrated, ranging across time, typographies, and countries, Shady Characters will delight and entertain all who cherish the unpredictable and surprising in the writing life.

Su questo libro

Product Description:

Every day we rely on punctuation marks to help us say what we mean, but where did they come from? Consider the ampersand (&), which started life as Pompeian graffiti, or the at sign (@), which languished in obscurity for centuries until rescued by the Internet. These and a host of other intriguing marks populate Keith Houston's rollicking and richly illustrated Shady Characters. From the Library of Alexandria to the halls of Bell Labs--across time, alphabets, and countries--readers will meet figures as diverse as Charlemagne, Vladimir Nabokov, and George W. Bush as they learn about marks as obscure as the interrobang, as omnipresent as the hashtag (#), and as divisive as the dash (--). Whether investigating what the pilcrow () has to do with medieval Christianity or what became of many ill-fated attempts to produce a standard sarcasm mark, Shady Characters provides a charming and indispensable perspective on two thousand years of the written wor

Su questa edizione

• Editore: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Data di pubblicazione: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0393064425
• ISBN 13: 9780393064421
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 340