Most people with any interest in the English language know that it has the worst alphabetic spelling system in the world. What they don't know in any great detail, however, is how this sorry situation came about. They don't know, for instance, that a 17th-century English schoolmaster named Edmund Coote had a major role. And they might be surprised at the parts played by greed, intentional complexity, and downright blunders. With this in mind, Niall McLeod Waldman has written Spelling Dearest. This book chronicles, in an irreverent and satirical way, the major happenings and minor annoyances...