The 26 Letters

by Oscar Ogg

"Write hard and clear about what hurts." - F. Scott Fitzgerald. Every story is nothing more than 26 Letters. In these pages, hear a voice, see the colors, and experience a life still in the making.

Genres: Language, Nonfiction, Writing, Linguistics, History, Art, Books About Books

262 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1948

Reviews

[J. Sebastian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simply written, beautifully designed, & visually elegant book that is a pleasure to read and absorb. The story of the origins of writing and the development of the letters of our alphabet from the cave paintings of the stone age to the printing press and beyond fills the reader with a sense of wonder. Highly recommended to all interested in the history of our alphabet, the vehicle of our literature. Ogg's passion and reverence for the history of our letters shines through every page, and as a storyteller he weaves a tale so magical as to engage and hold the interest of children (ages 10 to 100).

[Karen GoatKeeper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ogg loves letters, writing them, printing them, studying them. He makes this interesting in his book for the most part. It starts to drag when he gets to all the alphabets that appeared when printing started up.
Stop and think. Can you think of any Roman writing that isn't all in capital letters? You can't because there were no small letters.
So where and when did small letters appear? Ogg traces their development.
Romans used no punctuation, no sentences, no paragraphs. Why do we? Ogg goes into this too.
Just what did Gutenberg really do?
Why does any of this matter? Knowing where our writing came from makes it more special for those of us who use it everyday. Knowing this may lure us to take a little more pride and care in the writing we do whether for books or simple memos.
I read the older version and missed the chapter on digital. It is old fashioned and reflects some of the societal views of his time which are not those necessarily of today. The information in the book far outweighs these sentences and phrases, few in number and easily ignored.
The writing is crisp, easy to understand. The book is well worth the time to read it.

[Sunny · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book at the start but then the last half third was focussed on printing development which isn’t an area I am that interested in. The book is about the development of the alphabet and how we got to where we are today with our 26 letters from the Phoenicians and Egyptians many many years ago. Some parts were very interesting or example the link between the Phoenician word for “A” which was aleph and the image they used for that letter which looked like an ox. Also the link between the Egyptian hieroglyph for water and our present day letter “n”. Also that the Greeks originally had “z” in the middle of the alphabet but took it out then put it back in but stuck it at the end. Some of the chapters covered are: Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, small letters, invention of type and printing.

[Rick Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of really interesting insights in the story of how our alphabet came to be, and is lavishly printed with really lovely drawings and text.

But- it is also more than 60 years old, and the cultural assumptions are simplistic and dated. It is amusing to read, but the stories are told from a 1950's perspective, when Columbus was still stood as a pinnacle of progressive explorer-question the stories, but stay for the marvel that is written language.

[Samantha Gould · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ogg presents a fascinating and easily understood history of our alphabet. I was absolutely enthralled throughout the book! The only chapter that confused me was the last one because I read the latest edition from the 1970s and I don't know much about printmaking pre-computers. While I smiled to myself, thinking how far we've come in 30 years, I'm grateful that someone recorded the history of our letters in a way that actually makes sense. I wonder what Ogg would say about our computers and word processing software today.

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

A strange and, in my eyes disappointing, book that I thought was going to be about the history of the development of written language, but was really about the graphic style of letters, a rather less interesting aspect of writing.
I already remember rather little of the point of the book. It is for and about designers, their tools and how they use them to form lines and curves that strike the eye as elegantly proportioned. The book includes plenty of illustrations of examples of different approaches to structuring letters.

[Lara Giesbers · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are times when you are doing menial tasks and discover things of great interest. While dusting the shelves in my mother's house, I discovered this book and was intrigued by the title. It was a fascinating study; to see the history of written language and how written word was treated with the reverence akin to artistry. This book is a journey for anyone who has a healthy interest in intricate history.

[Madi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple and quick yet still entirely fascinating. Ogg writes with a charming style and an obvious passion for the topic. Great for anyone interested in a concise history of the alphabet (especially graphic designers!)
My only issue is there are some glaring omissions (such as very interesting origins of letters C, W, and Y). Either way, a pleasant casual read

[Marc Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great way to learn the history of our alphabet. Very easy to read and loaded with illustrations. Well written as well.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Who put the Alphabet in Alphabetical Order?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRDY3...

It turns out Egyptians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans. Medieval scribes gave us the small letters. Fun fact Z used to be the seventh letter of the Greek version of the alphabet, the Romans dropped it and then later realized they needed it and just tacked to the end of their alphabet.

[Briana Grenert · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good airplane read - easy, lots of pictures. It seemed simplistic at parts and overly in depth at other parts. I was a little disappointed because I expected more stories of letters (such as the fascinating story of the letter C and why it exists at all). Still, the printing stuff, though unexpected, was interesting (to a point).

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got a little draggy towards the end, but I had fun reading this. It has pictures/examples of lettering on almost every page, and I learned a lot.

[Abrahamus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is probably out of print. I found and bought a copy a few years back at a used bookstore. A delightfully illustrated presentation of the history of letterforms.

[Justus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book about the development of the letters...written in that lovable 1950's conversation style for young adults.

[Jessie! · Rating 2 out of 5]

it bored me, but at the same time kept me guessing. all you'd loved to learn about how our alphabet began

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've ever wondered where fonts come from, this is a good, basic history.

[Adrianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated with calligraphy and type examples showing the evolution of writing, this books is also entertaining with it's 1950's conversational style of narration. Loved it.

[Anthony Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two words: Aldus Manutius.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book.

Details the story of humans writing, printing, and font making. Lots of images to illustrate.

[Juliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy-to-read introduction to the development of writing with a focus on the English alphabet. Starting in prehistory and ending around the time of publication, which was 1948. This is suitable for middle-school aged readers, I think.

There are plenty of illustrations of different styles of characters and scripts, presumably produced by the author, which is kind of impressive. There is an emphasis on the ways in which the available tools for writing literally shaped the letters used throughout history.

I found it pretty interesting, because I like this sort of thing. I recently finished the chapters on early to modern printing... Fun facts include that there is a considerable amount of reason to question whether Gutenberg was the first to create/use a printing press with movable type, and that the term "font" goes back to early printing. I am surprised at the lack of discussion of typewriters, since they were invented in the 19th century and widely used before the publication of the book. Then of course since then we have word processors, computers, and the relatively new capability to transform handwriting into a computer font.

There is an utter and surprising lack of citations for such a historical and fact-based book. Still, a pleasant read.