📚 Sign Language

Full grammar in the hands: deaf-community languages, their documentation, and the recognition fight.

Below are the 30 works carrying the subject sign language in the Open Library catalogue with the most editions in print. Author and first year are as the record states them; a missing year means the record does not carry one, not that the book is undated. Novels set in the subject are left out, because a list of historical fiction is not a list of history. Where one author dominates the reprint counts, no more than two of their titles appear.

Cover	Title	Author	First published	Editions
	Seeing Voices	Oliver Sacks	1989	21
	Universal Indian sign language of the plains Indians of North America	William Tomkins	1926	13
	American sign language	Dennis Cokely	1980	13
	Sign Languages	Joseph C. Hill	2018	9
	American sign language dictionary	Martin L. A. Sternberg	1981	8
	Signing Naturally	Cheri Smith	1988	8
	British sign language	Margaret Deuchar	1984	7
	The language of gesture	Macdonald Critchley	1939	6
	Signing exact English	Gerilee Gustason	1972	6
	Recent perspectives on American sign language	Harlan L. Lane	1980	6
	The Gallaudet survival guide to signing	Leonard G. Lane	1987	6
	Learning American sign language	Tom Humphries	1920	5
	A basic course in manual communication	Communicative Skills Program.	1970	5
	Handtalk	Remy Charlip	1974	5
	The joy of signing	Lottie L. Riekehof	1978	5
	For hearing people only	Matthew S. Moore	1992	5
	Signing naturally	Ella Mae Lentz	1992	5
	Sign languages	Diane Brentari	2006	5
	Signing at School	Kathryn Clay	2013	5
	Signing at Home	Kathryn Clay	2013	5
	Legal Recognition of Sign Languages	Maartje De Meulder	2019	5
	Sign language structure	William C. Stokoe	1960	4
	Sign language made simple	Edgar D. Lawrence	1975	4
	Sign language for everyone	Cathy Rice	1977	4
	A basic course in American sign language	Tom Humphries	1981	4
	The Perigee visual dictionary of signing	Rod R. Butterworth	1983	4
	Signing	Elaine Costello	1983	4
	Religious signing	Elaine Costello	1986	4
	Simple signs	Cindy Wheeler	1995	4
	Knack American Sign Language	Suzie Chafin	2009	4

List built from Open Library (CC0 metadata) · retrieved 03 Nov 2026 UTC · capped at 30 works per subject.

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