Handwriting of Those Long Gone
I was at a wedding this past weekend and ended up speaking with a friend of a friend about my book. Toward the tail end of the conversation he said, “Isn’t it sad how our handwriting has suffered greatly because no one writes letters anymore.” Although, I purport there have been a great many losses as a result of lack of letters in today’s world, but I don’t think handwriting is one of them. I tried to explain to him that Poe had horrible handwriting and when I see scans of his letters online I am grateful that I’m not the one who had to transcribe them. He was still skeptical saying, “I’m not so sure about that. . .” Low and behold! Robert Fisk of The Independent comes to my rescue today in an amusing piece about the horrible handwriting of those who have gone before. Today’s lesson: Don’t be embarrased by your penmanship—write letters anyway. Someone will take the time to transcribe them someday.
July 15th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I enjoyed the book and enjoy writing letters, but thank my stars for the invention of the computer. My handwriting is so poor, I would be afraid to have a graphologist see it.
I tend to write poetry as letters. The last two were in a language I am teaching myself. Spanish.
October 6th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Thank you for sharing!
February 10th, 2008 at 11:53 am
On the other hand, I can say from personal experience that making an effort to improve your handwriting will give you satisfaction from the accomplishment, pride in your improved written letters, and will increase your desire to write letters (we all like to show off).
Here’s a review of the book I used to improve my handwriting:
http://news.justaaron.com/2007/11/eat-your-own-dog-food.html
And here’s an account of buying my first decent quality fountain pen (with a sample of my new handwriting), to support my new writing habit:
http://news.justaaron.com/2008/01/red-pen.html
Like Samara says, don’t be embarrassed, just write. But it’s kind of cool if your handwriting rocks too.
P.S. I discovered this blog through the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samara-oshea/modern-communication-how_b_85065.html