Book Review: The Missing Ink

In The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting, Philip Hensher writes a love letter to the handwritten word, an endangered art in this world of technological advances.  Handwriting is going by the wayside because everyone focuses on their electronic gadgets.  Texting, typing and even voice-activated messaging are all the rage.  Who writes a handwritten letter anymore?

The impetus for this book came when the author realized, with a bit of sorrow, that he didn't know what a friend's handwriting looked like.  There is something about handwriting that conveys the essence of an individual.  Nowhere is that more clear to me than my own emotional response to letters penned by my mother.  Her handwriting is immaculate and always has been.  When I was a teenager, I tried to emulate her neat style and used the printed form of 'a' that she used.  Still, my handwriting never came close to her perfection.  When I see words in her handwriting, my whole insides smile and all the love I feel for her wells up.  No doubt you've felt something similar when looking at your loved one's specific handwriting. As Hensher observes, "In the past, handwriting has been regarded as almost the most powerful sign of our individuality."

I knew I could find evidence of her style (both print and cursive) in the dedications she wrote in the Bibles she gave to me when I was a child and then a teen:

My husband's handwriting, while sloppier, also evokes a particular sentiment tied to my love for the individual behind the pen:

Over time, Hensher admits, handwriting evolves and he's not the least bit bothered by that (he argues you wouldn't still wear the same hairstyle you had ten years ago, so neither should your handwriting remain static).  My own handwriting has changed significantly.  When I used to teach school, my students struggled with my printed form of 'a,' often confusing it with a 2.  Then, I began aiding in a kindergarten classroom and realized that I really had to change the 'a,' so that the students wouldn't be confused in their learning process.  I began to make the circle with the short line.  Plus, over time, I've noticed that my handwriting has grown more sloppy.  I suppose this is because typing presents such ease of getting down thoughts quickly that when I sit down to write in my journal, my mind wants to spin quickly and my wrist grows weary of trying to keep up.  Speed always hinders legibility.

Here's an example of my handwriting (notes from a lecture at CBLI - a description of a story about a young boy's gift to his missionary teacher):

Hensher's discussion of handwriting covers a wide gamut and is often peppered with humorous anecdotes (although I didn't feel the interview sections added anything to the book).  He mentions the thrill of writing on various surfaces (I personally love the feel of a ballpoint pen on the surface of a napkin and my husband tires of finding lists I've made in this way).  Hensher even notes finding a crazy blog where the author claims you can improve your handwriting by changing your diet.  He discusses the thrill of finding a good pen.  He provides a brief history of the evolution of the pen (as well as the evolution of the teaching of handwriting, something we are losing as more and more states shift from the teaching of cursive to the teaching of keyboarding).

He ends with 10 charges to encourage people to retain handwriting in their lives.  These are things from as simple as making lists and slowing down to write notes instead of typing them into your mobile device, to keeping a journal or writing someone an actual handwritten letter (my favorite thing to receive in the mail).  I'm in complete agreement that the world would be a better place if more people took the time to send handwritten notes to friends and family.  Thankfully, I've received and replied to two such letters myself in the past four months.

In conclusion, Hensher declares that "handwriting is good for us.  It involves us in a relationship with the written word which is sensuous, immediate, and individual.  It opens our personality out to the world, and gives us a means of reading other people.  It gives pleasure when you communicate with it; when done at all well, it is a source of pleasure to the user.  No one is ever going to recommend that we surrender the convenience and speed of electronic communications to pen and paper...  Though it would make no sense to give up the clarity and authority of print which is available to anyone with a keyboard, to continue to diminish the place of the handwritten in our lives is to diminish, in a small but real way, our humanity."  Hear, hear!  Long live the handwritten word!