by Diane Widler Wenzel: Aging and changes in my handwriting

My writing in 1954



My writing in 2019

 A small detail from a book stood out as confirmation of what I thought happened in my own doings.
          One such observation is from the novel, THE WEIGHT OF INK by Rachel Kadish. A British history scholar observes  more rounded hand writing is an indication of youth.
          THE WEIGHT OF INK, by Rachel Kadish is a fictional novel about two educated woman.   One is a 21st century British scholar of Jewish history.  The other is a 17 th century scribe who took on a man's name to write letters to well known philosophers. She had to hide her identity as a women because women were not given a voice in educated conversation. Her personal writing and life touched on a deep level the woman history scholar who was the first to see the documents in 2003. Though she was leading the first examination of the letters,  academic politics made recognition of women very difficult. One reason the handwriting made the documents powerfully real to her was the handwriting. Through the changes in the heaviness of the ink's application, a record is made of  the smooth speed or hesitations of the writer.
          In order to confirm my own youthful rounded hand is actually more rounded than my mature pointy hand, I looked through samples of my own handwriting. I was surprised at not being able to confirm my own suppositions.  The fountain pen  I used in 1954 left a better record than the state of the art Pentel Roch'n Write which is made to make my writing more evenly consistent.
          The conclusion: My handwriting is now more evenly slanted than when I was 11 years old. The letters are closer together but just as rounded.  Not age but the stress of a busy life effected my writing when I was daily chauferring my children in competitive roller skating.  At the same time I sent many letters to aging parents and relatives, while working in an art studio away from home. My handwriting was smaller with more space between lines.

From a letter to my parents May 16, 1984

 

From copied lecture notes June 1964

At Portland State College I had much more leisure time than 1984