The letter ‘E’ is the most popular letters in the English language. On average, the letter contributes to 13% of written text, easily making it the most abundant letter, on average appearing every 7th letter – 5 times more than the next highest ranking letter in terms of usage. With this knowledge, author Ernest Vincent Wright set about making a novel that did not once use the ‘E’ amongst 50,000 words used. This lipogram (text excluding a particular letter) would be published in 1939.
Comprising A Book Without ‘E’
In order to avoid using the ‘E’ on his typewriter, Wright tied down the key so it could not be used. Wright explains: “This was done so that none of that vowel might slip in, accidentally; and many did try to do so!”
Of course, a book without such a common letter forced many compromises. These include the fact he could not use pronouns such as “he”/”she” as well as the most popular word of all – “the” (which makes up 7% of all printed text). He also could not use the past tense as these would feature the “-ed” suffix. As a way to avoid ‘E’s, he named his characters, locations and other proper pronouns without the letter such as character John Gadsby and area Branton Hills.
Wright said about the omission of the ‘E’:
“As I wrote a long, in long-hand at first, a whole army of little E’s gathered around my desk, all eagerly expecting to be called upon. But gradually as they saw me writing on and on, without even noticing them, they grew uneasy; and, with exciting whisperings amongst themselves, began hopping up and riding on my pen, looking down constantly for a chance to drop off into some word; for all the world like seabirds perched, watching for a passing fish! But when they saw that I had covered 138 pages of typewriter size paper, they slid onto the floor, walking sadly away, arm in arm; but shouting back: “You certainly must have a hodge-podge of a yarn there without us! Why, man! We are in every story ever written hundreds of thousands of times! This is the first time we ever were shut out!”.
Linguistic journal Word Ways said Wright could have still used 250 of the 500 most commonly used words in the English dictation.
Avoiding The ‘E’
Omitting this letter would, of course, lead to many issues in legibly stringing together sentences. This required some alteration from Ernest Vincent Wright.
Wright used noted quotations, changing them into lipogramatic form. Amongst these include altering John Keats’s “a thing of beauty is a joy forever” into “a charming thing is a joy always” and William Congreve’s “music has charms to soothe savage beats” into “hath charms to calm a wild bosom”.
He also had to alter objects titles in a way that did not use the ‘E’. A horse-drawn fire engine was described without the use of the words “horse”, “fire” and “engine”. Furthermore, a “turkey” becoming a “Thanksgiving national bird” and a wedding cake described as “an astonishing loaf of culinary art”.
An excerpt from the text below contains 223 words but no usage of ‘E’:
“Isn’t it surprising what an array of things a woman can drag forth, burrowing into attics, rooms and nooks! Things long out of mind; an old thing; a worn-out thing; but it has lain in that room, nook or bag until just such a riot of soap and scrubbing brush brings it out. And, as I think of it, a human mind could, and should go through just such a ransacking, occasionally; for you don’t know half of what an accumulation of rubbish is kicking about, in its dark, musty corridors. Old fashions in thoughts; bigotry; vanity; all lying stagnant. So why not drag out and sort all that stuff, discarding all which is of no valuation? About half of us will find, in our minds, a room, having on its door a card, saying: “It Was Not So In My Day.” Go to that room, right off. That “My Day” is long past.
“Today” is boss, now. If that “My Day” could crawl up on “Today,” what a mix-up in World affairs would occur! Oxcart against aircraft; oil lamps against arc lights! Slow, mail information against radio! But, as all this stuff is laid out, what will you do with it? Nobody wants it. So, I say, burn it, and tomorrow morning, how happy you will find that musty old mind!”.
Publication
EVW finished writing about 6 months after starting, finishing up the piece after over 200 pages and 50,000 words.
Unable to find a willing publisher, he self-published about 2 years after completing.
Unfortunately, it could not reach a commercial audience due to a fire that broke out at the Wetzel’s warehouse that would destroy most of the copies of the novel. Additionally, Ernest would die 2 months later, never seeing his text get any public attention.
Unfortunately, there were some noticeable ‘E’s within the book. This includes 3 uses of the word “the” on pages 51, 103 and 124 as well as “officers” on page 213. In all, it is thought there are 50,110 words without an ‘E’ in them.
Legacy
Although unrecognised in its day, it is now a highly sought after publication, with editions – even in poor shape – reaching towards the high 4-figures.
Inspired by this, French writer Georges Perec wrote his own lipogram without an ‘E’ as he penned La Disparition in 1969. A novel in his native French language, it has since been translated into a variety of languages, still retaining its ‘E’-less status.
Despite all this, the author of Gadsby, Ernest Vincent Wright is practically a ghost in terms of details. He may have served in the navy and may have graduated high school – and we don’t even know his nationality! It is most common theorised he was British from birth but is more accepted that he was American.
Wright is known to have written 3 other books from 1896-1918, these were: The Wonderful Fairies Of The Sun, The Fairies That Run The World And How They Do It and Thoughts And Reveries Of An American Bluejacket.