About this Item
Viking Press, New York. 1960. Hardcover. Stated 4th Printing May 1960. Retired small town library copy. Book is tight, square, and unmarked but for library stamps on the endpages, title page, and textblock top edge. Book Condition: Good; shelfwear to head, tail, tips, and board bottom edges; fabric wear at head and upper tips; sunfading to spine. No DJ but front flap is glued to front board. orange cloth boards and spine with red lettering on the spine and Egyptian scribe on the front board. Internal hinges are sound and not split. Clean internals. 160 pp 8vo. From Egyptian picture writing to the modern alphabets, here is the story of the relayed word that touches the high spots in a manner that not only leads to a fascinating subject but to readable scholarship as well. In this book the author fully describes the evolution of Egyptian picture writing and Babylonian cuneiform with its vowel syllables, setting them in relation to the social and physical forces which created them and to recent archaeological data that has illuminated their meanings. With a fine sense of transition, the story moves then to the Phoenician alphabet, the Greek and Roman and the final slow establishment of modern letter symbols and the remarkable facility with which man can present ideas through them. Then there is the last emphasis is on printing and the eventual mass circulation of the printed word and, with sidelights on paper, numbers, scripts, music notation and the oriental languages, we have a satisfyingly complete survey of the romance of writing. A clean very presentable copy. Seller Inventory # 014385
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