Handwriting of the Twentieth Century


Book Description

This fascinating and wide-ranging book charts developments in the teaching and study of handwriting over the course of the twentieth century. The book shows how changing educational policies, economic forces and inevitable technological advance have combined to alter the priorities and form of handwriting. This 'long and sometimes sorry story' tells also of the sheer pain and hard work of children forced to follow the style of the day, and of the reformers who have sought to simplify the teaching and learning of handwriting over the years. Illustrated throughout with examples from copybooks and personal handwriting from across the world, the book is a compelling historical record of techniques, styles and methods.




Artist & Alphabet


Book Description

Calligraphy and the lettering arts have been enjoying a renaissance all across America. This volume offers a selection of the work of the calligraphers who have made major contribtions to the field and whose work, in the opinion of their peers, is consistently outstanding. Illustrated with 140 examples of this work, it displays the richness and diversity of this art form.




The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting


Book Description

The future of handwriting is anything but certain. Its history, however, shows how much it has affected culture and civilization for millennia. In the digital age of instant communication, handwriting is less necessary than ever before, and indeed fewer and fewer schoolchildren are being taught how to write in cursive. Signatures--far from John Hancock’s elegant model--have become scrawls. In her recent and widely discussed and debated essays, Anne Trubek argues that the decline and even elimination of handwriting from daily life does not signal a decline in civilization, but rather the next stage in the evolution of communication. Now, in The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting, Trubek uncovers the long and significant impact handwriting has had on culture and humanity--from the first recorded handwriting on the clay tablets of the Sumerians some four thousand years ago and the invention of the alphabet as we know it, to the rising value of handwritten manuscripts today. Each innovation over the millennia has threatened existing standards and entrenched interests: Indeed, in ancient Athens, Socrates and his followers decried the very use of handwriting, claiming memory would be destroyed; while Gutenberg’s printing press ultimately overturned the livelihood of the monks who created books in the pre-printing era. And yet new methods of writing and communication have always appeared. Establishing a novel link between our deep past and emerging future, Anne Trubek offers a colorful lens through which to view our shared social experience.










Handwriting


Book Description

`I found this a fascinating book to read, I could identify with my time at school when I would often write with my paper almost in at right angles to my body because I found this comfortable, and the teacher′s insistence that the paper be "straight" in front of me. This then made me twist my body into a ridiculous shape, and would sometimes result in punishment for not "sitting on the chair correctly"....if only the teacher had understood the same principles as Rosemary Sassoon, who in this book emphasizes "flexibility and clear thinking about essential issues, rather than to impose solutions′ - Spare-Chair `Handwriting: The Way to Teach It should be required reading wherever Primary school teachers are trained, then perhaps there would be fewer young people still struggling to communicate in legible writing in Secondary school and later life′ - Handwriting Today `This is a comprehensive textbook, and an extremely accessible and practical guide which should be on the bookshelf of every practitioner. I recommend it highly′ - Jeni Riley, Head of Early Childhood and Primary Education, Institute of Education, University of London This book is an essential classroom guide to the teaching of handwriting. It covers all aspects of the subject: from whole-school planning, to classroom management and the teaching of letters in a highly illustrated and practical sequence; and from initial letter forms through to joined writing. The author presents many examples and imaginative ideas to make learning to write more effective and interesting for children and for teachers. This Second Edition includes material on problems which children can have with handwriting, and how to diagnose and remedy them. The author offers strategies for better teaching, and her aim throughout the book is to encourage flexibility and clear thinking about essential issues, rather than to impose solutions.




A Handbook to Twentieth-Century Musical Sketches


Book Description

This indispensable handbook explains how scholars and students should work with and think about the composer's working manuscripts.




Typewriter Century


Book Description

As a vehicle for outstanding creativity, the typewriter has been taken for granted and was, until now, a blind spot in the history of writing practices.




Japanese Women Writers: Twentieth Century Short Fiction


Book Description

This collection includes translated works by Japanese women writers that deal with the experiences of modern women. The work of these women represents current feminist perception, imagination and thought. "Here are Japanese women in infinite and fascinating variety -- ardent lovers, lonely single women, political activists, betrayed wives, loyal wives, protective mothers, embittered mothers, devoted daughters. ... a new sense of the richness of Japanese women's experience, a new appreciation for feelings too long submerged". -- The New York Times Book Review




The Missing Ink


Book Description

When Philip Hensher realized that he didn't know what a close friend's handwriting looked like ("bold or crabbed, sloping or upright, italic or rounded, elegant or slapdash"), he felt that something essential was missing from their friendship. It dawned on him that having abandoned pen and paper for keyboards, we have lost one of the ways by which we come to recognize and know another person. People have written by hand for thousands of years— how, Hensher wondered, have they learned this skill, and what part has it played in their lives? The Missing Ink tells the story of this endangered art. Hensher introduces us to the nineteenth-century handwriting evangelists who traveled across America to convert the masses to the moral worth of copperplate script; he examines the role handwriting plays in the novels of Charles Dickens; he investigates the claims made by the practitioners of graphology that penmanship can reveal personality. But this is also a celebration of the physical act of writing: the treasured fountain pens, chewable ballpoints, and personal embellishments that we stand to lose. Hensher pays tribute to the warmth and personality of the handwritten love note, postcards sent home, and daily diary entries. With the teaching of handwriting now required in only five states and many expert typists barely able to hold a pen, the future of handwriting is in jeopardy. Or is it? Hugely entertaining, witty, and thought-provoking, The Missing Ink will inspire readers to pick up a pen and write.




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