Writing: The Story of Alphabets and Scripts

Writing:
The Story of Alphabets and Scripts
	First French edition. Centre: traditional Chinese character for "brush" by Ru Xiaofan, 20th century; counterclockwise from bottom left: The Book Peddler, 16th-century wood engraving, Musée Carnavalet, Paris; detail of a plate entitled L'Art d'écrire, from the Encyclopédie, 1763; cover of a Kufic Koran from the Maghreb, photograph; hieroglyphic cartouche in Voyage en Égypte, Jean-François Champollion.
Author	Georges Jean
Original title	L'écriture, mémoire des hommes
Translator	Jenny Oates
Language	French
Series	Découvertes Gallimard●Archéologie (FR); Abrams Discoveries (US); New Horizons (UK);
Release number	24th in collection
Subject	History of the alphabet and writing
Genre	Nonfiction monograph
Publisher	FR: Éditions Gallimard; US: Harry N. Abrams; UK: Thames & Hudson
Publication date	4 December 1987; 21 June 2007 (new ed.)
Publication place	France
Published in English	1992
Media type	Print (paperback)
Pages	224 (first edition); 160 (new edition in 2007); 208 (UK & US editions);
ISBN	978-2-0705-3040-3 (first edition)
Preceded by	Montaigne : « Que sais-je ? »
Followed by	Vers l'Ouest : Un nouveau monde

Writing: The Story of Alphabets and Scripts (French: L'écriture, mémoire des hommes, lit. 'Writing: Memory of Humans') is a 1987 illustrated monograph on the history of the alphabet and writing. Written by French linguist Georges Jean, and published by Éditions Gallimard as the 24th volume in their "Découvertes" collection. The book is one of the five bestsellers in the collection, together with The Search for Ancient Egypt.^[1]