10 His other, subtler point is the ruthless grab for power by those who have it and want more. At the end of the story, Aub, the technician, discovers that the military plans to replace computerized missiles with manned ones because “a man is much more dispensable than a computer.” Aub kills himself because he “can’t face the responsibility involved in having invented graphitics.”
11 Or cell phone keyboard competence: in Japan, there’s a fad for writing novels on cell phone screens. You use your thumb to tap the keys while holding the phone steady with your little finger. While writing her eighth novel, a twenty-two-year-old named Satomi Nakamura broke a blood vessel on her right pinkie. She says, “PCs might be easier to type on, but I’ve had a cell phone since I was in sixth grade, so it’s easier for me to use.”
12 He didn’t say this happily: his computer had just crashed for the second time, destroying everything on his hard drive. My laptop had slowed to a crawl because it had more viruses than an influenza research lab. I’m tempted to write “Q.E.D.,” but I will refrain.
13 “To lose a passport was the least of one’s worries; to lose a notebook was a catastrophe.” —Bruce Chatwin in The Songlines
14 Nor is the rampant carpal tunnel syndrome that may well afflict future generations. If The Graduate were being filmed today, the businessman who takes young Dustin Hoffman aside to offer a bit of career advice might put it differently. Instead of “I want to say just one word to you: plastics,” it would be two words: “hand surgery.”
Bibliography
BOOKS
Paul Auster, The Story of My Typewriter (Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., 2002)
Camillo Baldi, A Method to Recognize the Nature and Quality of a Writer from His Letters (1622), translated by Robert Backman in Camillo Baldi, His Life and Works (Handwriting Analysis Research Library)
George Bickham, The Universal Penman (Dover Publications, Inc., 1941)
Wilfrid Blunt, Sweet Roman Hand (London: James Barrie, 1952)
Milton N. Bunker, What Handwriting Tells You About Yourself, Your Friends, and Famous People (Nelson-Hall, 1965)
Milton N. Bunker, Handwriting Analysis: the Art and Science of Reading Character by Grapho-Analysis (Nelson-Hall, 1972)
Mary Monica Waterhouse Bridges, A New Handwriting for Teachers (Oxford University Press, 1899)
June Downey, Graphology & the Psychology of Handwriting (Baltimore: Warwick & York, 1919)
Marc Drogin, Medieval Calligraphy (Dover Publications, Inc., 1980)
Barbara Getty & Inga Dubay, Write Now (Portland State University, 1991)
Tom Gourdie, A Guide to Better Handwriting (Viking, 1967)
William E. Henning, An Elegant Hand: The Golden Age of American Penmanship and Calligraphy; edited by Paul Melzer (New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2006)
Donald Jackson, The Story of Writing (Taplinger Publishing Co., 1981)
Charles L. Lehman, Handwriting Models for Schools (Portland, OR; Alcuin Press, 1976)
F. G. Netherclift, The Handbook to Autographs (London: 1862)
A. S. Osley, editor, Calligraphy and Paleography: Essays Presented to Alfred Fairbank on his 70th Birthday (London: Faber & Faber, 1965)
A. S. Osley, editor, Scribes and Sources: Handbook of the Chancery Hand in the Sixteenth Century: Texts from the Writing-Masters (Boston: David Godine, 1980)
A. N. Palmer, The Palmer Method of Business Writing by A.N. Palmer, 1901, A.N. Palmer Company, New York
Henry Petroski, The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance (Knopf, 1990)
Tamara Plakins Thornton, Handwriting in America (Yale, 1996)
Lloyd J. Reynolds, Italic Calligraphy and Handwriting: Exercises and Text (Taplinger Publishing Co, 1976)
Louise Rice, Character Reading from Handwriting (Van Nuys, CA: Newcastle Publishing Co., Inc., 1996)
Platt Rogers Spencer, Theory of the Spencerian System of Practical Penmanship, 1874, Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co.
Michael Sull, Learning to Write Spencerian Script; Spencerian Script and Ornamental Penmanship (Mission, KS: The Lettering Design Group, 1989)
Bernard Wolpe, ed., A Neue Booke of Copies, 1574 (facsimile) (Oxford University Press, 1962)
WEBSITES
www.analyzemyhandwriting.com
www.bantjes.com
www.bfhhandwriting.com
www.dnealian.com
www.handwritinganalysisresearchlibrary.org
www.handwritingsuccess.com
www.handwritingthatworks.com
www.hwtears.com
www.iampeth.com
www.leighzeitz.com
www.omniglot.com
www.penworld.com
www.richardspens.com
www.spencerian.com
www.writealetter.org
www.zanerian.com
Image Credits
ALL IMAGES ARE THE AUTHOR’S EXCEPT FOR THE FOLLOWING:
prf.8 Saleslady photograph courtesy the Library of Congress
1.1 Stylus, 2.31 handwriting courtesy Ron Savage
1.4 Roman Square Capital, 1.6 Roman Rustic, 1.8 Half Uncial, 1.10 Insular Miniscule, 1.14 Carolingian Minuscule, 4.1 Elizabeth I signature, 4.12 Thoreau lettering courtesy Margaret Soucy
1.5 Woman with stylus, 1.29 Laszlo Biro photograph courtesy Wikipedia
1.9 Monastery scriptorium, 4.6 Dickens manuscript used with permission from The Pierpont Morgan Library / Art Resource, NY
1.12 Swan painting, courtesy Turi MacCombie
1.15 Gothic joke from Medieval Calligraphy by Marc Drogin, reprinted with permission from Dover Publications, Inc.
1.18 Chancery hand, 1.19 English Roundhand, 1.20 Arabick, 1.21 Syriack, 1.22 putti, 1.23 bill of sale from The Universal Penman by George Bickham, reprinted with permission from Dover Publications, Inc.
1.24 Ben Franklin handwriting courtesy of Archives & Special Collections, Franklin & Marshall University, Lancaster, PA
1.26 Parker Pen, 1.28 Snorkel pen, 4.23 Esterbrook pen, 4.24 Parker 75 pen, photographs © Richard F. Binder
1.33 Derwent Pencil Factory photograph used with permission from the Cumberland Pencil Museum
1.34 Thoreau Pencil box image used with permission from the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods
1.35 graphite quill photograph courtesy Agelio Batle
1.36 Spencerian alphabet, 4.20 Spencerian workshop image, 2.11 Spencer memorial photo courtesy Michael Sull
2.1 Spencer portrait, 2.18 A. N. Palmer portrait, 2.19 Western Penman, from An Elegant Hand: The Golden Age of American Penmanship and Calligraphy by William E. Henning, reprinted with permission from Oak Knoll Press
2.2 Persis Duty Spencer, 1860, by Junius R. Sloan courtesy Brauer Museum of Art
2.3 copybook pages courtesy Patricia Maxson
2.6 “Kind Words” by Francis Courtney, 2.30 Copperplate alphabets courtesy Nick D’Aquanno
2.7 Spencer “principles,” 2.8 capital E, 2.9 lower-case K, 2.10 “whole arm” image from Theory of the Spencerian System of Practical Penmanship
2.12 letter, 2.13 “little red book,” courtesy Mary Alice Kier
2.14 Spencerian monoline courtesy Maureen Vickery, PenDance Calligraphy & Engraving
2.15 Saks advertising image courtesy Marian Bantjes
2.16 Coca-Cola image courtesy The Coca-Cola Company. The world famous Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Script Logo trademarks are registered trademarks of the Coca-Cola Company.
2.20 bedspring ovals, 2.22 drills, 2.27 youth with pen, 2.28 diagram, 2.29 classroom students, 2.17 Palmer alphabet from The Palmer Method of Business Writing
2.38 writing sample courtesy Rosamond Cerio Bennati
2.39 news photo, 2.40 writing sample courtesy Eileen Lawton Oliva
3.1 Michon image courtesy Handwriting Analysis Research Library
3.2 Poe signature and image courtesy The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
3.3–3.6 Bryant, Emerson, Longellow, Lowell handwriting samples from “On Autography” by Edgar Allan Poe
3.8
Roy Gardner script, 3.7 Bunker photo from Handwriting Analysis: The Art and Science of Reading Character by Milton N. Bunker
3.9 June Etta Downey photo used with permission from the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, June Etta Downey Photo File negative #16254
3.10 Gordon Allport photo courtesy Richard I. Evans, PhD
3.11 Philip K. Vernon photo courtesy Tony Vernon
3.12 Mad Bomber image courtesy Peter Stackpole/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images, 130 Anne Frank diary courtesy Anne Frank-Fonds – Basel/Hulton Archive / Getty Images
4.4 LongPen™ photo courtesy Matthew Gibson
4.5 Sarah Orne Jewett manuscript used with permission from Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Am 1743.17 (6)
4.10 Calligraphy invitation envelope courtesy Barbara Getty
4.11 Steinberg poster, exhibition at the Galerie Maeght, Paris, 1966 © The Saul Steinberg Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; photograph by Jack DeAngelis
4.13 Under Milk Wood excerpt courtesy Sheila Waters
4.14 Runtrikha script courtesy David Govan
4.15 Vine script courtesy Marshall Wildey
4.16 Byron graffito photograph courtesy Ted Reinert
4.18 Graffiti image, 5.27 notebook page courtesy Bill Stanton
4.19 IAMPETH certificate courtesy Rosemary Buczek
4.22 photograph used with permission from Sara Kane
4.25 Winter 2005 Pennant cover, photography by David Bloch; layout by Dede Rekopf and Fran Conn; design, objects, and image courtesy L. Michael Fultz
5.1 Duke of Wellington letter from The Handbook to Autographs by F. G. Netherclift (London, 1862)
5.3 handwriting sample courtesy Katherine Florey
5.4 Zaner Bloser, 5.5 D’Nealian, 5.6 Handwriting Without Tears alphabets from Educational Fontware
5.12 Getty Dubay alphabet, 5.13 handwritten page, 5.15 reformed script from Write Now by Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay, used with permission
5.8 David Usborne, Anthony Bedford Russell handwriting samples from Sweet Roman Hand by Wilfrid Blunt
5.10 “Practice Critically” from Italic Calligraphy & Handwriting by Lloyd J. Reynolds, reprinted with permission from Taplinger Publishing Co., Inc.
5.11 Lloyd Reynolds’s Mercedes photo courtesy Lloyd Reynolds Papers, Special Collections, Eric V. Hanser Library, Reed College, Portland, Oregon
5.17 “Remember,” etc. courtesy Kate Gladstone
Acknowledgements
For sharing their insights, pouring out advice, directing me to sources, helping with research, providing materials, serving as guinea pigs, lending moral support, and generally making this book possible, my deep gratitude1 goes to:
Rosamond Cerio Bennati
Michelle Bisson
Katherine Florey
Sara Kane
Mary Alice Kier
Becky Kraemer
Turi and Bruce MacCombie
Rich and Pat Maxson
Norma Fox and Harry Mazer
Stuart Miner
Eileen Lawton Oliva
Carl Rubino
Lorelei Russ
Ron Savage
Jane Schwartz
Laura and Leslie Smith
Bill Stanton
1 The fact that these thank-yous were not written with a fountain pen on monogrammed paper and sent individually by mail does not make them any less heartfelt.
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