For my parents,
who made sure I always had enough to read
Punctuation is a gentle and unobtrusive art that has long been one of the misfortunes of man. For about three hundred years it has been harassing him, and bewildering him with its quiet contrariness, and no amount of usage seems to make him grow in familiarity with the art.
‘Power of Points: Punctuation That Upset Work of Solons’, Boston Daily Globe, 20 January 1901
Contents
1 Cover
2 Title Page
3 Copyright
4 Dedication
5 Epigraph
6 Contents
7 Introduction: Love, Hate and Semicolons
8 I: Deep History
9 II: The Science of Semicolons
10 III: Sexy Semicolons
11 IV: Loose Women and Liquor Laws
12 V: The Minutiae of Mercy
13 VI: Carving Semicolons in Stone
14 VII: Semicolon Savants
15 VIII: Persuasion and Pretension
16 Conclusion: Against the Rules?
17 Acknowledgements
18 Notes
19 Index
20 About the Author
21 About the Publisher
LandmarksCoverFrontmatterStart of ContentBackmatter
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