William N Brigance (2 results)

Hard Cover. Condition: good-. Dust Jacket Condition: --. 596pp including index; orange cover is very soiled, worn at extrems with boards in evidence; b/w photos & ils. Hardcover.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. William Norwood Brigance. The Spoken Word: A Text-Book of Speech Composition. New York: F. S. Crofts & Co., 1929. Third printing (October 1929). Octavo, maroon cloth boards with gilt spine titles; xi + 325 pp. A seminal early text in American rhetorical education, Brigance's The Spoken Word bridges classical oratory and modern communication science. The volume provides systematic instruction on preparation, audience analysis, and persuasion—emphasizing speech as both disciplined craft and ethical act. Used in universities nationwide, this work helped establish "speech composition" as a core discipline within liberal education. Condition: Very Good. Maroon boards show minor rubbing and light shelfwear at extremities; gilt spine lettering bright and fully legible. Firm, square binding; pages clean, bright, and unmarked except for two neat ownership inscriptions ("Chas. Lightfoot ΛΧΑ," and a prior name crossed through) on front endpaper. Textblock edges and endpapers mildly toned from age. A solid, attractive example of this early academic title. Edition Note: Copyright 1927 by F. S. Crofts & Co.; third printing, October 1929, following the 1927 and 1928 impressions. William Norwood Brigance (1887-1960) was a pioneering American scholar of rhetoric and communication, longtime professor at Wabash College, and one of the foremost figures shaping 20th-century speech education. His textbooks, especially The Spoken Word and Speech: Its Techniques and Disciplines in a Free Society, trained generations of teachers and debaters. Brigance also edited A History and Criticism of American Public Address, a cornerstone work in rhetorical scholarship.…