Gwen Groves Robinson is a wide-ranging, world-traveling scholar of language, with a BA in Greek from Bryn Mawr and an MA in English from Houston University. A former academic journal editor, she has authored a book on Tokyo, four novels, and ten articles on punctuation.

List of Figures - Chronology - Preface - Acknowledgments - What Are We Talking About? - Literacy Begins - Orality-Its Characteristics - In the Clinging Embrace of Orality - Prose Claims Acceptance - The Other Lobe - Fifth-Century Historians Give a Fillip to Prose - Moving Towards Perfection - On Matters of Style - Alexandria Becomes the Hub of Greek Culture - Early Years - The Development of Literary Polish - Relaxing the Rule - Latin Picks Up Steam - Winding Up in the Ancient World - Christian Influences on Latin Literature - Sunblink in the Dusk - Diving Into Pitch - In the Lands of Mist - England Bestirs Itself - Northern Achievements Influence the Continent - A Quick Review of the Writing Arts Today - Termination - Index.