Professor Lepore gave a talk, illustrated with photographs, about her book, A Is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States, published by Alfred A. Knopf. The book is her account of how language was used in the early American Republic to define the young nation’s character and shape its boundaries. Some of the characters involved in the adoption of a national language included: Samuel F.B. Morse who invented the dot and dash code of the telegraph, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet who developed sign language for the deaf, and a Cherokee silversmith named Sequoyah who produced an 85-character syllabary for his tribe’s independence. At the end of the program she answered questions from members of the audience.