Around 1800 B.C., long before it became the symbol of superiority, the letter A was depicted as an ox head. As for B, the roots of its inferiority complex (think B movie or plan B) date to some of the earliest alphabets, in which, as it does now, B always came second to A.
So begins “Language Visible: Unraveling the Mystery of the Alphabet From A to Z” (Broadway, 395 pages, $24.95), a delightful journey into the history of our alphabet conducted by journalist David Sacks.
With a breezy tone and a passion for alphabet letters, Sacks tells the life story of all 26 of them — from A, the “first and best,” to Z, the least-used letter in printed English.
Each of these 26 “biographies” is filled with entertaining and fascinating facts.
Why are the letters L and R thought to be the “loveliest in human speech”? How did X become a symbol for smut? In this rich history, Sacks offers answers to the mysteries of the alphabet, and a long-overdue examination of the origins of our ABCs.
