an interesting obituary

[Wilson Gray]

Very interesting, in light of the similar program advocated on these
pages by our very own Tom Zurinskas. (That's a Lithuanized Polish
surname, possibly dating from the time of the Polish-Lithuanian
Empire, right, Tom? You probably have a very interesting genealogy.)

Great post, Mark!

On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Mark Mandel<thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      an interesting obituary
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Energetic would-be spelling reformer as well as a major contributor to the
> development of phototypesetting
>
> Edward Rondthaler, Foenetic Speler, Dies at 104
> By MARGALIT FOX
> Published: August 29, 2009
>
> Edward Rondthaler was one of the 20th century=E2=80=99s foremost men of let=
> ters =E2=80=94
> actual, physical, audible letters. As an outspoken advocate of spelling
> reform, he spent decades trying to impose order on his 26 lawless charges.
> As a noted typographer who first plied his trade 99 years ago, he helped
> bring the art of typesetting from the age of hot metal into the modern era.
>
> From the early 1960s on, Mr. Rondthaler was known publicly for his energeti=
> c
> campaign to respell English <http://www.houseind.com/movie/>, a cause that
> over the centuries has been the quixotic mission of an impassioned few. To
> spell the language as it sounds, he argued, would vanquish orthographic
> hobgoblins, promote literacy and make accessible to foreign readers English
> classics like Keats=E2=80=99s =E2=80=9COde to a
> Nightingale=E2=80=9D<http://www.bartleby.com/101/624.html>=E2=80=94 or, mor=
> e properly,
> =E2=80=9COed to a Nietingael=E2=80=9D =E2=80=94 whose opening lines appear =
> on
> this page.
>
> Long before that, Mr. Rondthaler had already established a national
> reputation by helping usher in the age of photographic typesetting.
> Phototypesetting was for decades a vital bridge between the hot-metal days
> of old and the digital typography of today.
>
>
> [full text at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/us/30rondthaler.html]
>
>
> m a m
>
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>



--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

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