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A Desk for All Writers | Main | Talking Letters with Rena Tom, Owner of Rare Device

October 22, 2007

The Joy of Handwriting

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At the risk of sounding like a complete geek, I will admit that ever since the third grade, when I envied my best friend's neat, slightly rounded script, I have had a thing for good penmanship. While bored in class, I would practice what in my mind were my ugliest capital letters: A, D, and H; I prided myself on the different ways I could write a M. I used to wince--okay maybe I still do, a little--when the letters on the page don't have the common decency to stay between the lines. I would ridicule--oops, I mean, tease--my brother for his tiny, indecipherable handwriting. But, after taking a look at some writing of the famous authors above, legibility is clearly not indicative of genius.

Handwriting experts (graphologists) will inform you that handwriting can tell you a lot about a person, although I'm not sure that large, looped handwriting equals a boldness of personality, or whatever they may claim. It is fun, however, to see how other people write. To me, that's part of the fun of getting letters from new people every month. As it's been said before, there's something personal about getting a handwritten letter. It's almost like a window, tiny as it may be, into a stranger's personality. Thus the fascination with the actual letters of famous people.

Handwriting clockwise from left: Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Ernest Hemingway

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COMMENTS


I worked very hard on my handwriting, too, when I was younger, and I noticed that more of girls took their penmanship more seriously than the boys. Wonder why the gender difference?

Given how technology is so much a part of our daily lives, I get a little sad when I hear that schoolchildren don't know how to use a pencil properly for writing. But this article gives me hope: http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2NSZmZ2JlbDdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5NzIwNTE0OCZ5cmlyeTdmNzE3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTQ=.

Posted by Sofia

Cursive handwriting is becoming an endangered species, it's a pity and at risk of sounding like an old fart, I blame the schools.

Posted by Sofia