Just My Typo

April 14, 2014
This amusing collection of typos, organized by category, shows what can happen when “a single letter, punctuation mark, or space is in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Moir, editorial director of U.K. literary imprint Sceptre, begins with errors in literature, such as Richard Dawkins referring to CERN’s particle accelerator as “The Large Hardon Collider.” He also remarks on the numerous typos in James Joyce’s Ulysses, most of which, due to the novel’s challenging mix of literary styles, “went largely unnoticed…forty years after publication.” Typos from the news media include mistakes such as the New York Times referring to Pakistan’s capital as “Islambad,” and a London Times advertisement seeking a “young person, age about 81 or 19.” Moir demonstrates the importance of punctuation, as when a cotton-broker received, in answer to whether he should make any purchases, this telegraph: “No price too high.” This breezy read proves the saying, “every time you make a typo, the errorists win.” B&w photos throughout.