Joseph Robertson (1726-1802), An Essay on Punctuation (London: Printed for J. Walter, 1785). Rare Books (Ex) TS1090 .xM8

In honor of Mary Norris’s visit to Labyrinth Books on October 13 at 6:00 p.m., here are a few images from An Essay on Punctuation by Joseph Robertson (1726–1802) printed for J. Walter in 1785.

Princeton’s copy is bound with Practical Remarks on Modern Papers (1829) and Typographical Antiquities (1813).

According to her webpage Mary Norris, the author of Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, “spent more than three decades in The New Yorker’s copy department, maintaining its celebrated high standards, has written the most irreverent and helpful book on language since the #1 New York Timesbestseller Eats, Shoots & Leaves.”

See also:
Peter Thomas and Donna Thomas, The Pencil (Santa Cruz: the authors, 2010). “This book tells a short history of the pencil and displays vintage advertising pencils. The text was hand written and colored with pencil by Donna, then color copied on Peter’s handmade paper.” Copy 26 of 30. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2015-1147N

Watch the Comma Queen’s videos: http://video.newyorker.com/watch/comma-queen-comma-queen-series-premiere