Customer Reviews

Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Kitty Burns Florey's "Script & Scribble" is as hilarious as it is timely. With handwriting currently caught in the push-pull between nostalgic yearning and the Internet Age, "write or type?" is a debate that many of us are constantly engaged in internally. Take something as mundane as a thank you letter. You want to convey gratitude and sincerity, two things which do not necessarily summon to mind Times New Roman and a laserjet printer. And yet, as a result of years of banging away on your QWERTY, your penmanship is borderline illegible. And should you sacrifice the speed of email for the formality of snail mail? Burns Florey not only tackles these everyday dilemmas, but adds her own mix of history and humor, making "Script & Scribble" a delight to read. I highly recommend.

As an avid fountain pen collector, this book immediately drew me in. The art of writing by hand is fast becoming a thing of the past -- forget about the virtues of fine penmanship, much less the craft of making fine pens instead of mass produced plastic things with colored goop in them. People yammer endlessly on cell phones, text in code, pound away at keyboards -- or eliminate the handwork entirely and dictate in dull monotone at their 'voice recognition software.' Writing, both the physical act of creating script and the art of stringing words together in complete sentences, is fast becoming a thing of the past. I expected this book would be a thoughtful essay on this topic.

This book does include a brief history of the development of writing and an interesting discussion of the various teaching methods and penmanship styles of the 18th through 20th centuries. There are some witty observations about the effect of the personal computer on our lives, especially on our (un)willingness and (in)ability to put pen to paper on a day to day basis. There is a discussion of the quirky "graphology" movement. All entertaining, if not extremely enlightening.

But the book also suffers from some serious flaws.

First, sad and sorry production values. As others have noted, there are some glaring glitches like text printed on top of graphics, footnotes misnumbered, typos, the absence of an index. One also would think that a book extolling the virtues of fine handwriting would also be a finely made book. This one is printed on cheap paper and has that "fresh out of a software package" look.

Second, some very thin content. The discussion of the history and current status of the fountain pen is superficial at best and inaccurate at worst. Sure, the fountain pen is not exactly mainstream. But there has been a modern resurgence of interest in fine writing instruments, both vintage and current production. This book devotes two pages to the development of the fountain pen, including an extended anecdote about an ad for the Sheaffer Snorkel on the "I Love Lucy" show. The author devotes just over one page to ink, which concludes with the observation that ink is "an artifact of another world," available only at art supply stores for use by artists and calligraphers. The author seems blissfully ignorant of the resurgence of interest in fountain pens and the revival of many of the classic pen manufacturers.

The title of the review sums up my impression of the book. Much to admire, much that disappoints.

How much is there to say about handwriting? More than you might think.

Kitty Burns Florey has taken what seems like a topic for a short magazine article and come up with quite a browsable book in Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting. She conducts a quick tour of writing, from cuneiform pictograms made with a stylus in wet clay up to handwriting methods taught in schools today. There's a survey of pens and pencils, as well as of typewriters.

Handwriting in popular culture, handwriting analysis, calligraphy, and doodling all come under Florey's scrutiny. She has done a considerable amount of research for the book, but also relies on her own experiences for many examples. Apparently she is quite a pack rat, because she shares many handwriting samples from her own experiences, starting in first grade.

Although this is not an academic book, there are many side notes to elaborate on points made in the text. You don't often see side notes, which are located in the margins unlike the more traditionally placed footnotes or endnotes. The wide margins also leave room for lots of graphics.

Florey, who has also written about diagramming sentences in her previous book Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences, is not a dinosaur who is clinging to the past. She accepts and embraces computers and blackberries, but wonders if keyboarding can completely replace handwriting. Students who take notes on laptops tend to transcribe class lectures verbatim. Students who take handwritten notes learn to evaluate while listening so they can pick out the noteworthy bits to write down. But most of us can type faster than we can write, and for a longer time. Both writing and typing have their merits.

In the end, Florey advocates a best of both worlds approach, in which children would learn to write legibly, in addition to learning keyboarding skills. She suggests an italic script that is a sort of cross between printing and handwriting. She sees no reason that children should learn to print and then to write. Why not just learn one method?

Full disclosure---when I bought this book, shortly after it came out, I was so taken with it I wrote the author a fan letter. She immediately filed a restraining order against me, and I was legally constrained from sending her any more mail. No, no, no, just kidding! She wrote back---a handwritten letter, needless to say---and we have corresponded since, But she does not have any idea I'm posting this review. Certainly she did not ask me to write it, nor would she have.

Will handwriting survive? It is not hard to imagine a day in the not-overly-distant future, when penilliteracy--I made that term up---will be rampant across the land. As it is today, I suspect lots of people use handwriting only when they are required to sign a legal document. They don't write checks anymore, because of debit cards and online banking. So, for a lot of people, handwriting has become analogous to singing. A century ago, people sang a lot more---in church, in community gatherings, or around the piano at home with family and friends. But now we tend much more to associate music with recorded music, and the participatory element has diminished. And because people don't sing much, they get out of practice, and on about the only remaining occasion on which we still do---a birthday party---people often sound dreadful, and very self-conscious. ( I know I do.) And people are that way about their handwriting. They don't have to use a pen, so their handwriting deteriorates, to the point where they are terribly embarrassed when other people see their ungainly scrawl. That embarrassment is a hopeful sign to me, because it signifies that people still feel having good, legible penmanship is something to be valued.

Next time you go into an antique store, thumb through the boxfuls of old postcards. You'll discover that beautiful penmanship eighty and ninety years ago was not a gift bestowed upon the few. You'll see lovely script on every card. And they had to contend with quirky nibs and bottles of ink! I believe anybody who wishes to improve his or her handwriting is capable of doing it, with help from a class in calligraphy, or perhaps a software program. The question is whether the interest in having good handwriting skills will ever resurge; maybe it will not. Few people are nostalgic today for the days when you had to make your own soap, and maybe in time handwriting will fade altogether.

Kitty Burns Florey is a graceful writer, and frequently funny, and her book is hardly a starchy schoolmarmish finger-wagger. She makes good handwriting sound very cool, and very desirable. Which I certainly have long felt. If you've read this review this far you are probably going to enjoy this spirited and informative book.

I thought I would be getting a screed on script and scribble but instead I got a galloping history of writing, printing, pens, cursive styles, fonts, etc.-- all of great interest to me. The only tragedy of the book lies in its sloppy production by the designer who laid out the book for the publisher. Sad mismatch of footnotes, placement of captions, etc. Deplorable in another age. No wonder she laments the loss of handwriting! And publishing arts in general. They need Final Eyes (www.finaleyes.net). Well worth reading. The writer still has credibility; only the publisher is lacking.

Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting

By Bill Marsano. In the New York Times' daily crossword puzzle of July 3, the clue for 37 Across (seven letters) was "Calligraphy, some say." It was one of the last answers I filled in: "Lost Art." I hate to admit it, but it's true. And now here's Kitty Burns Florey to tell us some marvelous things about well, not calligraphy, exactly, but the plain and simple act of writing by hand with pen or pencil. Like me, she grew up in Catholic schools and was schooled in a writing style called the Palmer Method (she remains loyal; I have defected long since), so the subject is personal to her. To that she has added research and her own grace as a writer. The result is this absorbing, captivating and anecdotal book.

Along the nicely illustrated way we learn plenty of interesting things. Who'd have thought that in early 18th Century London a clerk or a contractor would write so fine a hand that his bill "for work and materials" on a house in Tower Hill would be a thing of beauty in itself, preserved and admired to this day? Who'd have thought that the beautiful writing by commoners would spark a backlash amongst the upper crust, who would distinguish themselves from lesser folk by scribbling as sloppily as possible? That Copperplate, Spencerian and Palmer method were all "scientific" styles, distinct and replete with rules, rules, rules not only about the shapes of letters but proper posture for the writer and whence must come the light source?

As a professional writer I am bound to my computer--even as I compose this review--as once I was to the typewriter, but still I write with a fountain pen every day (Parker Duofold, italic nib) and have a dozen other back-up pens. I use them all from time to time, to sign checks and letters, and especially to address envelopes. Here's why: everybody gets junk mail, and it's obviously junk. But suppose that in your daily stack you were to see an envelope that was just as obviously addressed by hand, by a real person? You'd open it first, of course. Lost art though it may be, calligraphy still counts in some places. Thank-you and sympathy notes must be hand-written. Some people even hire calligraphers to address invitations because the touch of a human hand means so much. (There are numerous computer typefaces that mimic handwriting. don't even dream of them. They are pathetic. )

And so I recommend this book even as I forgive Ms. Florey for being a copy editor and for paying insufficient attention to Chancery Cursive, even as I recommend that you but this book and invest ten bucks more in a Sheaffer Mini Calligraphy Kit (also available from Amazon) so you can, after just a little practice, see what PERSONAL expression looks like.--Bill Marsano is an award-winning writer on travel, wine and spirits.

This is really a very short work on the subject lasting some 190pp including the credits.

The writer is humorous and displays a wealth of knowledge on the subject and makes you want to read on while talking about subject matter that many would find only boring; yet I found interesting UNTIL the last chapter. It is as if another person wrote that or some editor suggested that this short volume be lengthened to give it more meat or a broader point in keeping with the subject matter. I saw little if any point to the last chapter and would liken it to a name dropper at a cocktail party. Lots of names, light fluff and very little substance to the conversation. But I would still buy the book, for its free flowing manner, less the last chapter. One can easily finish it in two evenings as I did. I would say the book contains little of anything you NEED to know, but A LOT OF THINGS that are fun to know and contemplate. And yes it will be more beneficial to those of an age to have benefited from the Palmerian school of handwriting. I doubt that any of the millenial generation would find it that enthralling, even though it does have a myriad of pictures and drawings to help sustain their interest. Buy the book and enjoy it, simply skip the last chapter. Your life will still feel just as fulfilled as before!

I can only echo the points made in other critical reviews. "Script and Scribble" provides a great deal of enjoyable information about the history of handwriting and its associated tools, including quills, fountain pens, ballpoints (or "biros", if you're British), and even the lowly pencil. The research and copious examples are first rate and the breezy and often humorous tone helps carry the reader through to the end.

Unfortunately, while the contents are delightful, many production elements are of surprisingly poor quality. Attention to detail is missing in a variety of areas, including graphics which overlap and obscure text and footnotes being mis-numbered. It's hard to imagine how any professional editor or their staff allowed this to go to print in its current state.

5 stars for content and tone, but only 1 star for presentation and production, thus the 3 stars on this review.

Dr. Izzie Stevens on Grey's Anatomy says penmanship saves lives. "Is that a 7 or a 9? If I have to ask myself that in the middle of an emergency, your patient is dead. You killed him with your handwriting." The most deadly medical instrument is a pen.

The author says penmanship used to be taught for two hours a week in elementary school. Now it is down to 45 minutes. Only 12 percent of teachers feel their education courses prepared them for teaching handwriting. If people who can't count were teaching math, it would be on 60 Minutes. No one suggested calculators mean we don't have to teach kids to add. Why should typewriters/computers cease teaching writing?
What happened to pen pals?

Like snowflakes, fingerprints and faces, no two hands are alike. Writing is a form of self presentation, uniqueness and creativity.

Try to go a day without writing anything down. You can't sit down and reread a phone call.

Journaling is recommended for healing, grieving, recovering, spirituality, stress management, fun, discipline and publication. How will people learn to do this anymore?

Whoever thought there were this many types of pens that she mentions: ballpoints, fountain, rollerballs, fine and superfine and bold points, micro points, needle points, gel pens, felt-tips, highlighters, comfort grips, non-slip grips, rubber grips, precision grips, classic grips, airplane-safe pens (won't leak), water-resistant pens, fade-resistant pens, pens specially formulated to prevent fraud, latex-free pens, go-anywhere pens (clip it, hang it, wear it), erasable pens, expandable pens, pens with built-in highlighters, won't bleed through paper pens, permanent markers, washable markers, china markers, click pencils, pencils that support breast cancer research, refillable pens, never-need-sharpening pencils, drafting pencils, anti-microbial pencils, scented pencils...

There is even a pen that can be used to sign autographs at a distance.

Let's celebrate on Jan. 23--National Handwriting Day. Write a recipe or a letter.

Thank you for the reminder!

I feel like I ought to hang it on the wall next to my fountain pen collection! Very glad that Florey, a smooth & easy-to-read writer, was interested enough in the subject to present it to the rest of us.