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Online Author Talk With Gabe Henry

Our Failed Attempts to Make English Eezier to Spell

Have you ever wondered why the spelling of words in English is sometimes just, well, weird? Come on a surprisingly hilarious journey through the history of the English language with author Gabe Henry to discuss troublemakers like Mark Twain who broke all the rules. Adults. Register to get a link. A recording will also be available for later viewing.

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Have you ever wondered why the spelling of words in English is sometimes just, well, weird? Come on a surprisingly hilarious journey through the history of the English language author Gabe Henry to discuss troublemakers like Mark Twain who broke all the rules.

Anyone who has the misfortune to write in English will, every now and then, struggle with its spelling. In our erratic system, "choir" and "liar" rhyme, but "daughter" and "laughter" don't, and somehow "you" and "ewe" can't agree on a single letter. So why do we still use it? If our spelling is so inconsistent, why haven't we tried to fix it?

In the comic annals of linguistic history, legions of rebel wordsmiths have died on the hill of spelling reform, risking their reputations to simplify English spelling. Gabe Henry's book "Enough Is Enuf" is about them: Mark Twain, Eliza Burnz, Noah Webster, Upton Sinclair, Emma Dearborn, Theodore Roosevelt, Benjamin Franklin and the countless other "simplified spellers" who, for a time in their lives, became fanatic about writing "kof" instead of "cough," "tung" for "tongue" and "fyzics" for "physics" (and tried futilely to get everyone around them to do it, too).

In "Enough Is Enuf," Henry humorously traces the "simplified spelling movement" from medieval England to Revolutionary America, from the birth of stand-up comedy to contemporary pop music, and explores its lasting influence in words like "color" (without a "u"), "plow" (without "-ugh") and the iconic '90s ballad "Nothing Compares 2 U." Finally, Henry brings us to the digital age, where the swift pace of online exchanges now pushes us all "2ward" simplification.

Adults. Register to receive a link for viewing this online event.

About the Author: Gabe Henry is the author of three books including the poetry anthology "Eating Salad Drunk," a humor collaboration with Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Odenkirk, Mike Birbiglia, Margaret Cho and other titans of comedy. "Eating Salad Drunk" was featured in The New Yorker in February 2022 ("A Smattering of Haiku for the Burnout Age") and ranked one of Vulture's Best Comedy Books of 2022. Henry's work has been published in TIME, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, the Weekly Humorist, US News & World Report and more. He has spent more than a decade exploring the strange and forgotten history of simplified spelling, which, by his own admission, has only made him a worse speller. He lives and works in New York. Learn more at www.gabehenry.com.

This event is part of DBRL's Online Author Series, supported by David Lile honorarium funds. A recording will also be available for later viewing on the author series site.

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