After a lifetime of pondering and deciphering what he calls “this cunning code” that’s the English alphabet, Michael Rosen has come up with
ALPHABETICAL: How Every Letter Tells a Story (Counterpoint, 431 pages), a book that chronicles with infectious delight the birth, growth, and evolution of each of the ABCs over the centuries. The poet, novelist and host of the BBC radio show “Word of Mouth” takes the reader on an engaging adventure with the alphabet’s history starting when the Phoenicians first came up with the idea of how to represent sounds in writing, then onward to the evolution, pronunciation, and uses of each letter up to the present day.
Rosen is clearly in love with the English language, unabashedly telling the reader anecdotes about his personal romance with it from way back in childhood, such as quizzing his father with the toughest words he could find in the dictionary, watching his mother type on their old mechanical typewriter with a jumpy ribbon, and he himself taking a two-week typing course that he says he loved so much, “hours and hours forcing my mind, fingers, keys and letters to work along in synch.” His irrepressible storytelling often digresses to such off-subject but interesting topics as methods for teaching children to read; crossword puzzles, codes, and ciphers; handwriting; disappeared letters; typefaces; alphabet songs; mnemonics; and the creation of dictionaries.
Says Priscilla Gilman, former professor of English literature at Yale and Vassar, in her review of Rosen’s book for the
Boston Globe: “Many will find it easier to dip into ‘Alphabetical’ than to read it in big chunks. Not everyone will share Rosen’s enthusiasm for Qwerty, for example, or find umlauts quite as fascinating as he does. But Rosen is so beguiling, so self-deprecating, so inventive and passionate and funny, that it’s hard to begrudge him his enthusiasms.”
Read Carlos Lozada’s “Most writers love words. This one loves letters,” a review of Michael Rosen’s Alphabetical, in The Washington Post now! Read Priscilla Gilman’s review of Michael Rosen’s Alphabetical in the Boston Globe now!Read the highlights of “‘Alphabetical’ Tells The Story Behind Every Letter, A To Z,” NPR’s interview with Michael Rosen, at npr.org now! (with audio)ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Michael Rosen, who read English at Oxford University, is a British poet and novelist. A former Children’s Laureate, he is the bestselling author of
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, which won the Smarties Best Book of the Year Award, and several other books. He presents “Word of Mouth” on BBC Radio 4.
