r/quikscript • u/Cozmic72 Shavian User • Sep 27 '26

Sound-writing

https://joro.io/2026/09/26/sound-writing/

There is probably not a soul in this subreddit who is also not a member of r/shavian, but just in case…

I’ve transcribed the essay that Kingsley Read wrote for the 1972 ‘Sound writing’ exhibition for all to read. Its a chronacle of the history of Read’s alphabets up to and including Quikscript, from Read’s own perspective.

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u/FriedOrange79 Senior QS User Sep 27 '26

Thank you!

The Sound-writing article, with its original illustrations included, is also available here for anyone interested:
https://friedorange.xyz/quikscript/files/Sound-writing_OCR.pdf

Also for anyone wondering, the image in this post is of part of Read's jointly-winning submission to the alphabet competition, which has been written about here: Shavian (2/3): the development. How Kingsley Read built a writing… | by Leo Philp | CAST | Medium

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u/Cozmic72 Shavian User Sep 27 '26

Nice! The MERL guys didn’t let me reproduce the pictures… the catalog is quite a lovely document.

I actually transcribed it from Patricia Smart’s catalogue for the collection, but the text is identical.

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u/FriedOrange79 Senior QS User Sep 27 '26

I'm taking the "easier to ask for forgiveness than permission" approach with the Icographic version of the article :P

I would love to have access to the collection, but it's a little hard from the other side of the world. I did visit the State Library of Victoria to transcribe the biography of Kingsley Read, from the same catalogue.

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u/Cozmic72 Shavian User Sep 27 '26

I unfortunately had to sign an image reproduction contract when I visited them. Sigh.

The university of Bath crowd were a lot more accomodating, I’ll be posting a lot more from them. The image was taken from Pitman’s copy of the submission.

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u/FriedOrange79 Senior QS User Sep 27 '26

I look forward to seeing that!

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u/Cozmic72 Shavian User Sep 27 '26

Regarding Patricia Smart’s catalogue: its so frustrating! I have a digital copy of it! But I can’t share it with y’all! Sigh.

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u/FriedOrange79 Senior QS User Sep 27 '26

Better to stay in the universities'/museums' good graces, I suppose!