“How did he do it? How did this adventurer and soldier; crippled in the service of his king and country; kidnapped and held in slavery in the dungeons of Algiers for five long years; who returned to his country hoping in vain to be granted a post worthy of his name and sacrifices; who was reduced to collecting taxes for an unpopular government; who was sued and sent to prison on multiple occasions—how did this man invent a way of writing that would be so different from what came before it and have such a profound impact on what would follow?”