George Bickham's Penmanship Made Easy (Young Clerks Assistant)

Rating:
Summary: Not a calligraphy manual, but...
Review: ...still an enjoyable read for the price.

A good portion of the writing samples included in Mr. Bickham's book were not, in fact, considered calligraphy in their time, but rather to exemplify legible and easy styles of business hand, intended, as per the book's subtitle, for clerks and others whose jobs necessitated a good deal of writing and record-keeping, prior to the era of the typewriter. To the reviewer who complained of the cursive scripts being illegible, try reading handwritten cursive a bit more often; the scripts do retain certain archaisms such as the extended S, but are not significantly different from, for instance, the Spencerian system of cursive penmanship, which dominated American schools throughout the 19th century. If you want illegible (to the modern reader's eye) calligraphy, try picking your way through an illuminated medieval manuscript.

That said, this caveat must be included: this book does -not- give explicit instruction on how to reproduce the styles, it is merely a collection of the best samples-- it's best for those who already have some grasp of some form of calligraphy or antiquated penmanship. For those -looking- to learn, I would recommend Theory of Spencerian Penmanship as a starting point, at the very least. For those who have no interest in taking up calligraphy and merely enjoy looking at elegant handwriting, it's a delightful curiosity and memento of the vanished culture of penmanship; much of the writing samples given are quite simply beautiful to look at; though this particular calligraphy enthusiast would hope that admiration of beautiful writing would spur more people to take up interest in a now-esoteric art.

Rating:
Summary: Penmanship Made Easy -- Not!
Review: I have trouble calling this a book. It's a bound collection of calligraphy, and not very good calligraphy at that. Many letters are unreadable. Penmanship should be to help communicate by written word. This book is not helpful unless you're experienced with calligraphy.

Rating:
Summary: Fine examples of formal handwriting in the 1700's
Review: Mr. Bickham was an 18th century engraver and calligrapher. Although the book (orignally published ca 1733) begins with a set of rules on how to form letters, these rules and the book's examples are best studied by an experienced calligrapher. This is NOT a beginner's book. But it is delightful for those who like to examine the formal hands of nearly three centuries ago. The examples are not just alphabets but writing samples. Fancy "Content alone is true happiness; or the Country Lass"? How about "Beauty's a Fair But Fading Flower"? There are many calligraphic examples from copperplate to blackhand. As the gentlelman says, everything the "young clerk's assistant" might need.