Research Catalog
Semicolon : the past, present, and future of a misunderstood mark
- Title
- Semicolon : the past, present, and future of a misunderstood mark / Cecelia Watson.
- Author
- Watson, Cecelia
- Publication
- New York : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2019]
- ©2019
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1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | JFC 19-550 | Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315 |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Russo, Anthony
- Description
- 213 pages : illustrations; 19 cm
- Summary
- A page-turning, existential romp through the life and times of the world's most polarizing punctuation mark. The semicolon. Stephen King, Hemingway, Vonnegut, and Orwell detest it. Herman Melville, Henry James, and Rebecca Solnit love it. But why? When is it effective? Have we been misusing it? Should we even care? In [this book, the author] charts the rise and fall of this infamous punctuation mark, which for years was the trendiest one in the world of letters. But in the nineteenth century, as grammar books became all the rage, the rules of how we use language became both stricter and more confusing, with the semicolon a prime victim. Taking us on a breezy journey through a range of examples--from Milton's manuscripts to Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'Letters from Birmingham Jail' to Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep--[the author] reveals how traditional grammar rules make us less successful at communicating with each other than we'd think. Even the most die-hard grammar fanatics would be better served by tossing the rule books and learning a better way to engage with language. Through her rollicking biography of the semicolon, [the author] writes a guide to grammar that explains why we don't need guides at all, and refocuses our attention on the deepest, most primary value of language: true communication.
- Subjects
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 189-206) and index.
- Contents
- Introduction: love, hate, and semicolons -- Deep history: the birth of the semicolon -- The science of semicolons: American grammar wars -- Sexy semicolons -- Loose women and liquor laws: the semicolon wreaks havoc in Boston -- The minutiae of mercy -- Carving semicolons in stone -- Semicolon savants -- Persuasion and pretension: are semicolons for snobs? -- Conclusion: against the rules?.
- Call Number
- JFC 19-550
- ISBN
- 9780062853059
- 0062853058
- 9780062853066 (canceled/invalid)
- 0062853066 (canceled/invalid)
- 9780062917935 (canceled/invalid)
- 0062917935 (canceled/invalid)
- 9780062917942 (canceled/invalid)
- 0062917943 (canceled/invalid)
- LCCN
- 2018045968
- OCLC
- 1060579931
- Author
- Watson, Cecelia, author.
- Title
- Semicolon : the past, present, and future of a misunderstood mark / Cecelia Watson.
- Publisher
- New York : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2019]
- Copyright Date
- ©2019
- Edition
- First edition.
- Type of Content
- text
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 189-206) and index.
- Added Author
- Russo, Anthony, illustrator.
- Other Form:
- Online version: Watson, Cecelia. Semicolon. First edition. New York : Ecco, 2019 9780062853073 (DLC) 2018056939
- Research Call Number
- JFC 19-550