American Back Hand and Back Slant Handwriting

American Back Hand and Back Slant Handwriting “Back hand” or “backhand” is, in the simplest sense, any writing that is angled to the left. It may tilt only a few degrees to the left of vertical, or it may be very leftward slanting. How does one write back hand, and how does that technique differ from writing normally? SLANT AND PAPER ANGLE According to Platt Rogers Spencer’s sons in a book cover from 1894, to write in a normal style with a rightward slant, a person rotates the paper to the required angle to the left, and their writing is the therefore angled to the right. To write in with a leftward slant, a person would rotate their paper to the required angle to the right, and their writing is the therefore angled to the left. This concept is evident on the back cover of the 1894 Spencerian system of penmanship which shows both styles of writing. [1] As the chart also shows, a person wanting to write absolutely vertically would keep their paper straight up and down and also write absolutely vertically, with no angle. It is understood that each of these three writing styles can be perfected by anyone. This is not to say that all writing teachers or penmen would express these views, but such are the directions in this chart, at least. Charles Paxton Zaner, In 1904, Zaner offers this advice to those choosing to write a back hand, non-script lettering:[2] Hold paper parallel to desk. Use a fine, flexible pen. Holder should point above eblow. Hand may rest on side. Practice the principles before the letters, letting fingers until last. Use fingers in connection with arm. Be sure at first rather than speedy. Increase shades gradually. Watch spacing. DIFFERENT BACK HAND STYLES In their 1879 New Spencerian Compendium are examples which one might assume are named after different penmen: Hayes back hand, Cottingham back hand, and Abbott back hand. [3] [4] In the Spencerian system of penmanship copybook, copyright in 1888 and revised in 1894 they have a back hand that is called a Spencerian back hand. BACK HAND FOR LEFT HANDED WRITERS In some cases, backhand was considered the preferred writing style for left handed writers. This is probably most poignantly clear as evidenced by the left-handed writing of Civil War soldiers who lost their right arm. [5], 1876, [6] As a point of comparison, one might also want to see what rightward slanting penmanship looks like from other amputees, J S Pendergrast in 1865 [7] and Burrit Stiles in 1867. [8] BACK HAND AS A WRITING STYLE, REGARDLESS OF HANDEDNESS? Back hand writing exists in letters of many kinds. As to whether or not it is created by left-handed writers or right-handed writers may not be discoverable in some cases. In others, the back hand is clearly not an issue of handedness. Here are some examples worthy of consideration. As for more formal use of backhand, one can see it here in a carefully written business letter from the New York Produce Exchange to the Astor Library in New York City. [9] In this business letter, written by George L. Wooodward in 1911, the leftward slant is quite pronounced, and the tight or narrow spacing of letters makes for more difficult reading. This style, because of its lack of roundedness in its letterforms, is certainly not in any way from the round hand or vertical writng movement, despite it being from 1911. (See examples below for clarification on this point). [10] In another formal letter, backhand is used only for emphasis, as one can see relative to other writing on the same page, in an 1882 annual report of the Lenox Library in New York. [11] In this case in particular, it is clear that the backhand is written by a very skilled writer whose use of back hand is for effect rather than as a result of handedness. DIFFERERTIATING BACK HAND FROM VERTICAL WRITING In order to differentiate back hand from “vertical writing,” one must first understand the dates and history of the movement of the “vertical writing” style. The first outlier in this movement is library handwriting, formally introduced in’’Library Notes, Volume 1, No. 4 by Melvil Dewey in March 1887. [12] While Dewey perhaps did not see his writing as belong to this style, it is a fair classification of it. This argument might be further supported by the fact that the alphabet of Newland and Row in Natural System of Vertical Writing is cited by Melvil Dewey as early as 1903 as a model for library handwriting. [13][14] The broader “vertical writing” movement began in the United States in 1893 and was taught in schools, according to Charles Paxton Zaner from 1894 - 1904 (this is broadly true, although it persisted in some schools for another decade or more). Here is clear evidence that the vertical writing movement still exerted influence during this time [ https://davidkaminski.org/wiki/Handwriting,_by_Edward_L._Thorndike._Thorndike,_Edward_L.,_copyright_1910,_1912,_Scale_C,_a_scale_for_handwriting_of_children_in_grades_5_to_8] Some forms of vertical writing persisted in very isolated locations and among very specific groups. Here is a sample from a school assignment by Nan Barchowsky in 1939. [ https://davidkaminski.org/wiki/Nan_Jay_Barchowsky,_Elementary_school_essay,_India,_1939 ] This class of writing attempted to be vertical, but in many cases, a slight leftward slant was preferred. In California, the rule was the opposite, in that it was supposed to have a very slight rightward slant. The California Vertical System developed by I. D. Rodgers and Belle Duncan. [23] [24] Mention of that is here, in 1905, “Vertical system in use from four six years in all cities and most country schools. A growing tendency to adopt a form of which has a full open letter with a slight slant to right hand all loops and curves possible left off. Los Angeles San Francisco and Oakland systems adopted as above described in 1903." [26] Therefore the back hand writing that follows this time period, while it can be classified as a slight back hand, is in fact often a vertical handwriting, excepting the vertical writing movement originating from California. Further, it is a commonly held view that this leftward slant often progresses over time and becomes more slanted. As such, it “collapses” into a less readable and often much more difficult style to write. Therefore, we must use the intial dates of the teaching of vertical writing as a demarcation so that the writing that follows can be assessed or considered as being the result of initial training in vertical writing. It is not however the case that all back hand writing after these dates must therefore be some variation of the vertical writing style. All that is suggested is that there be some effort to attempt to distinguish among the influences. WRITING WITH A SLIGHTLY LEFTWARD SLANT There are examples with a minor leftward slant that were written before 1894, that cannot be therefore classified as part of the vertical writing movement. Yet, some might argue that the angle is only slight, and therefore not a true back hand style, but having only a back handed angle. These samples fall along some continuum in which they may or may not be a very sloppy round hand that is leaning leftward. Or, they may be a sloppy and very slight back hand. One does find people who use an exclusively leftward slant in writing as early as 1858 in Boston. This would seem hard to classify as a round hand, and therefore must fall into the backhand category, I would think. [15] Next is some writing from a librarian before the introduction of library handwriting. W I Fletcher wrote this in 1885, while at Amherst College. [16]. This is perhaps some very diluted version of a round hand, as the o’s and a’s and a few other letters have a tight roundness to them. Here, in a formal letter written on the behalf of Charles Amis Cutter, the librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, one can see what might be classified as a round hand, but this has a leftward rather than vertical angle, as most round hands do. Could it be a back handed round hand? Perhaps. [17] Here is another formal letter, which hurried and somewhat sloppy style that is written by James C. Piling, the chief clerk at the Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey in Washington DC writing to Frederick Saunders at the Astor Library in New York City. [18] This letter does not seem much like a round hand. It is at best a badly deteriorated form of that. Therefore, this seems to be more of a sloppy back hand. LIBRARY HANDWRITING OR BACKHAND? There are some writing samples that are, and are not, both “library handwriting” and “back hand”. This particular subset of writing is found in libraries and might more appropriately might be called “back hand handwriting in libraries,” for it is not any offical style endorsed by the library associations. Yet as the writers are themselves librarians, it was certainly approved for use in their own libraries. One example of this, from a card catalog, is written by Sarah Bliss. Because its style ignores the conventions of Melvil Dewey’s library handwriting and also likely predates the vertical writing movement, it is safest to class this as a late 19th century backhand. [19] Another is this sample from a library card catalog, dating from approximately 1909. [20] This second sample poses a more complex problem because it was written after the era of vertical writing, and this handwriting may be some imitation of that, though badly deteriorating in angle and style. Because it exists in a card catalog, one might be tempted to classify it as library handwriting; however, since its letterforms do not resemble the models endorsed by Melvil Dewey or others, it must be placed in the category of a back hand. BACK HAND, OR BACKSLANT? THE USE AMONG EVERYDAY WRITERS AND PENMEN There is yet another style of back hand that is indisputably a bona fide back hand, of a more extreme slant that some, such as Michael Sull, consider a backslant, though in this and the following samples, one does not see it confined to penmen alone. [21] This is a style that was certainly used to show the prowess and skill of penmen. Among the most well-known is Frank B. Courtney. Here is an envelope from 1905 addressed to “Horace G. Healy Editor.” [22] Let us also revisit a sample already mentioned. George L. Woodward, most certainly not a penman, wrote this in 1911.[23]