The Engima of the Letter E

English spelling is a curious thing; in the following short poem, The Enigma of E, we follow the letter “e” as it wanders enigmatically from the beginning of words to the end of words to evoke such vastly different meanings. Enjoy the journey…

The beginning of eternity,
The end of time and space,
The beginning of every end,
The end of very place.

I stumbled across this delightful curiosity when I visited an antiquarian bookstore and pulled an old dusty book from a forlorn stack of books, hidden from view by another stack of books. Like an old pair of leather shoes, the book was tattered and worn, with a fragile spine that barely held onto to its musty-smelling yellowed brittle pages. The title immediately captured my interest — From Gleanings for the Curious From the Harvest-field of Literature by Charles Bombaugh. The book was published in 1890 by J. B. Lippincott Company that was founded by Joshua Ballinger Lippincott (1813–1886) to initially publish Bibles and books of prayers. Over time, the Philadelphia-based company expanded its catalog to include biography, fiction, poetry, history, and reference books like dictionaries, almanacs, school textbooks, and textbooks on law, medicine, and nursing. The publisher was extremely successful, becoming one of the largest publishers by the end of the 19th century. Following the turn of the century, Lippincott began publishing textbooks and reference books for elementary and high schools. The company continued to grow throughout the decades and was purchased by Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. in 1978. The headquarters, a stately Italianate-style brick building, can still be seen today at 227 South 6th Street, overlooking Washington Square.

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If you enjoyed this essay, you might enjoy my book, Serendipitous Discoveries from the Bookshelf, based on my popular blog, Atkins Bookshelf. The blog explores the world of ideas — through books, movies, music, quotations, and the English language — for the intellectually curious. At the heart of Atkins Bookshelf is a lifelong love of books and literature; its goal is to educate, entertain, and inspire.
The book can be found here.
The blog can be found here.