Science, biography, and human interest stories combine as the author traces the ""miracle of the human voice"" and man's desire to employ it in countless ways for the purpose of perfecting communication. The mechanics of speech, its reproduction by machines and a variety of ""glumicks"", by ventriloquists, through the inventions of Bell, Edison, Strowger and others, its amazing ability to achieve strange effects, its vital use in diversified cultures from primitive times to the present jet age have all been carefully researched in terms most palatable to the layman. Human vocal cords, a matter taken for granted, rarely pondered, comprise an unusual subject approach to man's development.