The dying art of handwritten letters
Saving handwriting from extinction
I love books and therefore, I love bookstores. For those who know me, it’s not a surprise. I have a long list of favorite bookstores and any time I go on a trip, the first thing I do is to look for a coffee shop and a bookstore. I have stacks of books in every room on every surface.
And every time, I come across a quote about books, I send it to my friends to justify buying more books. It’s a running joke. Books and potatoes. I always have something to say about these two. But I digress.
One of my favorite things in a bookstore are those little handwritten notes where staff writes about their current favorites. It sparked many conversations and introduced to books I otherwise would not have come across on my own.
just a tiny sample of books I bought in the last few months…
Recently in one of my favorite bookstores I overheard one young woman whispering to her friend: “I can’t read cursive” as her friend was reading a handwritten note about a book whose title was also written in cursive on its cover. She repeated it a few times and her friend started spelling the title of the book for her letter by letter…
It made me think how letter writing is such a dying art. I love writing in my journal, I love handwritten cards, I love reading old letters that my grandma saved that she received from her brother during WWII.
I always felt that everyone’s handwriting carries unique magic that only exists when this person writes.
What makes us human is our handwriting because it is inherently part of us, of our history and experience, our temperament. No handwriting is the same. The way we hold or grip our pencil, the way we scribble or slowly shape one letter after another, the way the concentration shows up in the furrowed brow. No AI can compete with that.
Handwriting is art. Letter writing is an art form. Unfortunately, according to several sources including NPR and the Atlantic, anywhere up to two third of Gen Z or college students cannot write or read cursive. We are totally dependent on reading block letters only. Thanks to our dependence on our phones and computers.
Many prolific poets, writers and famous people were also prolific at their personal correspondence. The love letters. The anguish. The personal journals. And everything in between.
Napoleon and Josephine, Rilke, Hemingway, Van Gogh, Picasso, the list goes on… They have written thousands of letters. We are lucky that most of them have been preserved and we now have an insight into their lives, that culture, their successes and fears.
On top of that, writing longhand has plenty of benefits, such as improving memory, cognitive function, imagination. So it’s not just a form of art, it’s a form of science.
How do we save the art of handwriting from disappearing?
I’ve been thinking to do combine my love of books and letter writing and questions and art. What I’ve come up so far is I’d love to find a few people with whom I can exchange letters. I’m thinking of introducing a snail mail project with a twist. More details to come soon. In the meantime, I’d love to know if you keep a journal and if you want to write letters.