ABSTRACT
When 35-year-old one-armed John Wesley Powell launched forth in 1869 with his party of 10 to explore the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, he knew that it existed, that it had shape and substance, land and people. To be sure, the images were largely penumbrae, promises, and perils. The start of his trip was easy enough, but each turn thereafter offered surprise and challenge. When Richard Venezky set out a century later to explore English orthography, his journey moved likewise through strange and uncertain territories, whose very existence was questioned.
