Man Who Did History of Writing?

[jeanwilson]

Does anyone remember the name of the man who lived in Minnesota and had a wonderful presentation on the history of writing - geared for kids but equally interesting for adults. I believe there was a YouTube video of one his presentations. Sadly - he passed away. Seems like he was only in his 40s - maybe younger?

Maybe there is someone on the forum who belongs to the Colleagues of Calligraphy, the St. Paul/Mpls guild - who could ask one of the old timer members of that guild. And then maybe we could find the video on YouTube.

[Zivio]

I, too, am looking for introductory "the least you need to know" level information about paleology, like the video @Jean Wilson mentioned and hope someone has the source for it.

Decades ago, I'd read that a valuable way to begin learning about something completely foreign is to read children's books on the topic.  While I was unable to locate the specific presentation Jean mentioned, her post inspired me to search YouTube.  I did find this useful lesson geared to kids, like myself  :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyjLt_RGEww
 

I tend towards learning from books, and often completely forget the value of videos!  I’m very interested in any other useful information for novices on the topic others might provide.

[AnasaziWrites]

Decades ago, I'd read that a valuable way to begin learning about something completely foreign is to read children's books on the topic. 

@Zivio
Quite right in my case.
In the summer of '73, I was working in Copenhagen for the summer and had time to study Danish at the university. In addition to my lessons, I advertised for Disney comic books, written in Danish, of course, and amassed a collection of them by the hundreds which helped me learn the language as a child would. Quite effective and entertaining as well.

[Estefa]

"The Golden Thread" by Ewan Clayton is a wonderful book about the history of writing (the western / Latin alphabet kind at least)! Written with passion and knowledge .

[RoughDiamond]

@jeanwilson

This isn't the one you're looking for but for others who may be interested, Donald Jackson's four part documentary entitled "The Story Of Writing" is on YouTube. It is very interesting. The picture quality is OK but not as great as we are perhaps used to.

[jeanwilson]

thanks @RoughDiamond
Jackson's documentary is excellent

I found the name I was looking for - Scott Cleland.
Sadly - nothing pops up on YouTube that is the calligrapher Scott Cleland - there are other Scott Clelands.
I saw a video many years ago - and it was so good.