Quote Originally Posted by Ole Juul View Post

I remember reading letters from my grandmother, and others who go back to the 1800s.
I am a bit confused....I'm sure you meant 1900s?
I didn't have a problem. Nor did they have a problem reading my response.
Both my parents wrote lots of letters, and it was in cursive. Though funnily enough, my dad's writing gradually changed to printing as he got older. My mother always wrote in cursive and it was very fluid, to the point that it was difficult to read, even then. I still remember as a child trying to decipher a grocery list where she had written "cardemumme" (the Danish word for cardamon). As well, her "u" and "i", and other letters, were virtually indistinguishable. It was however, as I said, very fluid and consistent. Actually very beautiful in its own way. My parents are of course long gone, and now I'm just left with reading their old letters and note books. It's a bit hard, but I work at it.
From what I've seen of most letters written by 1950s most letters were written in "cursive" styles. Definitely the ones of XIXth century..... I recall I once came upon a 19th century letter from France to Australia in the 19th century. The handwriting was exquisite. So, in some ways you could read the cursive handwriting.


The MacLean method was not pretty. Even the best examples look clunky to me. So now that I've gotten a deeper interest in pen and ink, I thought I'd try it again. Surprisingly it didn't take long to remember.
I find the handwriting style cringe worthy... I don't know. Though I love cursive with flourishes...