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1 review
A history of writing from the earliest picture drawings of early man to the spread of the alphabet by the Phoenicians and ending with a photoessay of calligraphy from Japan to medieval Europe. While an older book it was quite interesting because of the lavish use of photos and drawings. The author doesn't assume that he has the last word on the development of writing and hints that new discoveries may change some of our ideas. I would like to find a good article or short book that does update his information but this book was worth the time I spent because of the illustrations alone.

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Author Information

18+ Works 1,087 Members
402 Works 13,964 Members

Some Editions

Biggs, Robert D. (Introduction)

Series

Common Knowledge

Canonical title
The Birth of Writing
Original publication date
1974
First words
Among all the revolutionary creations of man, writing ranks as the supreme intellectual achievement.
Original language
English

Classifications

Genres
Nonfiction, Anthropology, History, General Nonfiction
DDC/MDS
417.7LanguageLinguisticsDialectology and historical linguisticsHistorical linguistics (Diachronic linguistics)
LCC
P211 .C59Language and LiteraturePhilology. LinguisticsLanguage. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammarComparative grammar

Statistics

Members
132
Popularity
246,961
Reviews
1
Rating
(3.77)
Languages
6 — Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian
Media
Paper
ISBNs
5
ASINs
7