Alphabetic Labyrinth, The

Language is devoted to articulation, but the inarticulate elements from which it is composed -- bare forked letters, decaying sounds -- have long teased the human imagination as something at once unaccountable and provocative: a threat of utter incoherence underlying all linguistic expression; a token of some final as yet undisclosed revelation. Drucker, an author of many accomplishments, a poet, novelist, art historian, and printer, has written a history of alphabetic forms and speculations.