A Novel With 50,000 Words But No Letter 'E'

In 1939, American author Ernest Vincent Wright accomplished something that sounds impossible: he wrote an entire novel without using the letter 'E'—the most common letter in the English language. Gadsby clocks in at 50,110 words, and nearly every single one lacks that forbidden vowel.

This type of constrained writing is called a lipogram, and Gadsby remains probably the most ambitious example ever attempted. Wright didn't just avoid 'E' in dialogue or descriptions—the entire narrative, from start to finish, follows this iron rule.

How He Did It

Wright knew how tempting it would be to slip up. His solution? He physically tied down the 'E' key on his typewriter while writing the final manuscript. In the book's introduction (which does contain the letter 'E', since it's not part of the story), Wright explained that many E's "did try to slip in, accidentally."

He wrote the book in under six months, starting in 1936 and finishing in February 1937. His biggest challenge wasn't vocabulary—it was grammar. The past tense suffix "-ed" became his nemesis, forcing creative workarounds for nearly every verb.

The Story Behind The Constraint

Gadsby follows John Gadsby, a man who revitalizes the dying fictional town of Branton Hills with the help of a youth organization. The plot itself is straightforward, even optimistic—but that's not why people remember it.

Wright couldn't write about "the" (it contains an 'e'). He couldn't use numbers between six and thirty (seven, eight, nine, ten... all forbidden). He couldn't write "he," "she," "they," "them," "when," "then," or thousands of other common words. Every sentence required linguistic gymnastics.

A Tragic Fate

No publishing house would touch Gadsby, so Wright turned to a vanity publisher—Wetzel Publishing Co. in Los Angeles. The book finally appeared in 1939, but disaster struck almost immediately.

• A fire at Wetzel's warehouse destroyed most of the print run
• Wright died just two months after publication at age 67
• Only a handful of copies survived

Today, first editions are highly sought-after rarities among book collectors, sometimes selling for thousands of dollars.

Was It Perfect?

Almost. The 1939 edition contains exactly four slips: the word "the" appears on pages 51, 103, and 124, and "officers" shows up on page 213. Given the monumental challenge Wright faced, four mistakes across 50,110 words is remarkably impressive.

Modern readers can access Gadsby for free through Project Gutenberg, where it remains a fascinating curiosity—proof that arbitrary constraints can push writers to extraordinary creative heights, even if the result is more admired than actually read.