Synopses & Reviews
A charming and indispensable tour of two thousand years of the written word, weaves a fascinating trail across the parallel histories of language and typography.
Review
"If whetted your appetite on the subject of punctuation, then you have a treat in store. is an authoritative, witty, and fascinating tour of the history and rationale behind such lesser known marks as the ampersand, manicule, the pilcrow, and the interrobang. Keith Houston also explains the octothorpe--otherwise known as the hashtag--and and my final comment on his book is #awesome." Ben Yagoda, author of How to Not Write Bad
Review
"Make no mistake: this is a book of secrets. With zeal and rigor, Keith Houston cracks open the &, the #, the
Review
"I'm a sucker for this stuff. The @ is called chiocciola (snail) in Italian! The & was once taught as a letter of the alphabet! The manicule has been with us for a millennium! Thank you, Keith Houston, for bringing these little mysteries out of the shadows of typographic history." Constance Hale, author of Vex, Hex, Smash and Smooch and Sin and Syntax
Review
"For fans of Lynn Truss's , this bestiary of lesser-known punctuation marks is a wonder." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Funny, surprising, and, of course, geeky." Michael D. Schaffer and John Timpane
Review
"Might make you look at books... in an entirely new way." Philadelphia Inquirer
Review
"Houston...is a tireless researcher and an amiable teacher." Andrew Robinson Nature
Review
"A pleasurable contribution to type history, particularly for readers who haven't considered the ampersand in any detail." Jan Gardner Boston Globe
Review
"Fascinating." Carl W. Scarbrough New Criterion
Synopsis
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.
"
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
"An absolutely fascinating blend of history, design, sociology, and cultural poetics--highly recommended."--Maria Popova,
About the Author
Keith Houston is the creator of the Shady Characters blog. He and his wife live in Edinburgh, Scotland.