Punctuation

Many writers profess great exactness in punctuation, who never yet made a point.

 

        The eccentric (and self-anointed) Lord Timothy Dexter didn’t see any point: in 1802 he wrote a book called,  ‘A Pickle for the Knowing Ones’, which was completely devoid of punctuation (it was also lacking in capitalization, correct spelling, rules of grammar and general readability).

 

        The book was so ridiculous that anyone who was of any importance in London society of that era just had to have a copy. The first edition sold out in a short time.

 

        When some readers complained, the good Lord Dexter added a single page to the second edition, filled with a profusion of commas, colons, stops and other signs, so that readers could ‘pepper and salt’ his book with punctuation marks to their hearts’ content.