The Story of English

The Story of English is a nine-part television series, produced in 1986, detailing the development of the English language.[1]

The Story of English is also a companion book, also produced in 1986.

The book and the television series were written by Robert MacNeil, Robert McCrum, and William Cran.[2] The book has been revised twice, once in 1993, and again in 2002.[3]

The documentary series was directed by William Cran,[4] and originally broadcast on the BBC, then later on PBS. It was co-produced by MacNeil-Lehrer Productions and the BBC, and was principally funded through a grant from General Foods. The third episode, "A Muse of Fire", won the 1987 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement - Informational Programming - Writing.[5] The series was released as a 5 tape box set in 2001, running 495 minutes.

The book and series have been used in university courses.[6][7][8]

  1. ^ Davenport, Anne Azzi; Brown, Jeffrey (12 April 2024). "Robert MacNeil, co-founder of NewsHour, dies at 93". PBS NewsHour. PBS. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  2. ^ McCrum, Robert; Robert MacNeil; William Cran (1986). The Story of English. New York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-80467-3.
  3. ^ ISBN 0-14-015405-1 and ISBN 0-14-200231-3
  4. ^ The Story of English at IMDb
  5. ^ "Primetime Emmy Award Database - The Story of English". Emmys.com. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  6. ^ The Story of English Video Series - contents listing, including timecode descriptions at the Wayback Machine (archive index)
  7. ^ ENG 121: The Story of English — a Northern Arizona University course using The Story of English as its base.
  8. ^ "Open Syllabus Project - Story of English". galaxy.opensyllabus.org. Retrieved 22 July 2019.