The Missing Ink

The Missing Ink - Paperback

$21.99
$21.99
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The Missing Ink
  • The Missing Ink
The Missing Ink - Paperback

The Missing Ink - Paperback

by Philip Hensher
$21.99
$21.99

Book Overview

The loop of an "l," the chewed-on pen, letters tiny or expansive: what we've lost in the error of typing and texting

When Philip Hensher realized that he didn't know what a close friend's handwriting looked like, 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: handwriting.
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.
ISBN9780865478022
Author Philip Hensher
PublisherFarrar, Straus and Giroux
GenreEducation, History, and Arts
FormatPaperback
PublishedNovember 2013
LanguageENG- English
Pages288
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Art History Language Arts & Disciplines Nonfiction

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More by Philip Hensher

The Missing Ink

The Missing Ink - Paperback

The Missing Ink - Paperback

By Philip Hensher

About Philip Hensher

Philip Hensher's novels include Kitchen Venom, which won the Somerset Maugham Award, and The Mulberry Empire, which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Chosen by Granta as one of its best young British novelists, he is professor of creative writing at Exeter University and a columnist for The Independent. He lives in London.

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