Legends of Letterland

My 6 year old daughter learned to write this past year in kindergarten. I'm not sure when she first noticed cursive handwriting, but it was most likely as she watched one of the adults in her life make a list or sign a receipt. In any case, she became intrigued with script, and began to "practice cursive writing" in her free time.

This delighted me, because I've heard that cursive writing is being removed from most public school curricula, and believe it and handwritten communication in general to be a beautiful, personalized art form that captures volumes of emotion, character and tone that are lost in digital channels.

Imagine my giddiness when I came across a 1926 book at a local antique shop called Legends of Letterland by a Big Bird (The A.N. Palmer Company, NY), a penmanship handbook with "jingling rhythms for teaching good, clear form of business writing to beginners."

 

I adore that the book is so 1920's-30's stylized, and that the author and illustrator have reached so eccentrically far to come up with visual mnemonic devices to help readers recall the forms (see The Capital H and K below).

 

 

My daughter loves the book too, and has been studying it with determination. There will soon be a 7 year old who writes like her counterpart 88 years ago, with a lot of quirky cursive letter poems to show off to her pals.