Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting [Hardcover]

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?