Not sure if this makes a great author, but he gets credits for the concept.
THE ENTIRE MANUSCRIPT of this story was written with the E type-bar of the typewriter tied down; thus making it impossible for that letter to be printed. This was done so that none of that vowel might slip in, accidentally; and many did try to do so!
In writing such a story, -purposely avoiding all words containing the vowel E, there are a great many difficulties. The greatest of these is met in the past tense of verbs, almost all of which end with “-ed.” Therefore substitutes must be found; and they are very few.
Link: Book without an E
[via: ehrensenf]
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459. Bright Idea?: a Manuscript sans E « SparkBugg.com wrote,
[...] 459. Bright Idea?: a Manuscript sans E August 23, 2007 Posted by SparkBugg in Book. trackback I didn’t think it was possible, but it is: someone wrote an entire manuscript, titled “Gadsby,” without once using the letter “E.” That means no “the, he, she.” Below is the first sentence. Check out the entire story HERE; via RGS. [...]
Link | August 23rd, 2007 at 1:53 am
a scandinavian reader wrote,
I would like to point out, that Gadsby is not first one to write a book without a single letter. French writer Georges Perec wrote La disparition (´disappearance´) already in 1969, using words that excluded the letter ‘e’. the interesting part was, that not even the publisher notice that something was missing from the book!
quote from wikipedia:
“Perec is also noted for his constrained writing: his 300-page novel La disparition (1969) is a lipogram, written without ever using the letter “e”. It has been translated into English by Gilbert Adair under the title A Void (1994).The silent disappearance of the letter might be considered a metaphor for the Jewish experience during the Second World War. Since the name ‘Georges Perec’ is full of ‘e’s, the disappearance of the letter also ensures the author’s own ‘disappearance’.”
Link | August 23rd, 2007 at 5:31 am
SimoneM wrote,
Fantastic…I think…
But I suppose it is one way of getting publicity. Imagine your frustration though, when you’ve gone to all that trouble of writing gazillion chapters of whatever and then you can’t type THE END…
Link | August 23rd, 2007 at 8:18 am
RGS wrote,
SomoneM … how did he end the book … lol .. I have to go back now and check on that.
And Scandinavian Reader, thank you very much for doing some research and for posting it.
Link | August 23rd, 2007 at 9:04 am
DcTurner wrote,
This is Oulipo, it’s brilliant; really good for beating writer’s block and inspiring creativity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulipo
Link | August 23rd, 2007 at 12:48 pm