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THE MISSING INK

Name: THE MISSING INK
Author: Philip Hensher
ISBN: 978-0-86547-893-0

THE LOST ART OF HANDWRITING

by Philip Hensher ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 13, 2012

Informative, amusing and idiosyncratic—just like an interesting letter written in unique hand.

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Critic and novelist Hensher (Creative Writing/Univ. of Exeter; King of the Badgers, 2012, etc.) laments the loss of handwriting instruction and surveys the history of our love affair with the pen.

After some introductory comments about the once-important but now diminishing significance of handwriting in our culture, the author zooms back a few thousand years for a glimpse at the invention of writing. He then gradually moves forward to look at the various styles and techniques and teaching philosophies that once rose, reigned and fell. He occasionally inserts minichapters (all called “Witness”) that comprise interviews with people of differing ages, genders and professions discussing their handwriting, how they learned it and how they feel about it. (These are not the most riveting sections of the text.) Hensher looks closely at the methods that once were prominent—copperplate, Spencer, Palmer and others—and offers some surprising tidbits along the way—e.g., hand printing (as opposed to script) did not emerge until the early 20th century. The author also discusses the handwriting of significant historical figures ranging from Dickens to Hitler; talks about the role of handwriting in literature from Sherlock Holmes to Proust; charts the history of the quill, the steel nib and ink; and sketches the history of the “pseudo-science of graphology.” He waxes ironic and amusing, too, several times suggesting that a person who dot his i’s with little hearts is a “moron.” The author ends with a wistful list of things we might do to save the dying art.

Informative, amusing and idiosyncratic—just like an interesting letter written in unique hand.

Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-86547-893-0

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012

Categories:

ART & PHOTOGRAPHY | GENERAL HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
SCENES FROM EARLY LIFE
by Philip Hensher

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NORTHERN CLEMENCY
by Philip Hensher

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MULBERRY EMPIRE
by Philip Hensher

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TALKING PICTURES

PEOPLE SPEAK ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHS THAT SPEAK TO THEM

by Marvin Heiferman & Carole Kismaric ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 3, 1994

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An ambitious, glossy, consumer-friendly package that has a wide range of people commenting on photographs that have affected their lives. Heiferman and Kismaric run Lookout Books, a producer of popular photography titles (notably, William Wegman's children's series). Here, they interview some 69 individuals—celebrities, artists, laypeople—after having asked each to choose an image he or she finds powerful. Works of photojournalism, from the old Life magazine in particular, awoke feelings in many. G. Gordon Liddy tells of having a gut reaction at age 11 to a stark WW II image of dead Marines washed up on a New Guinea beach. Benjamin Spock speaks of being shocked to pacifist activism by Nick Ut's 1972 shot of children fleeing a napalm strike in Vietnam. From the other side of the camera, lensman Eddie Adams walks readers through a graphic account of how he happened upon his Vietnam-era picture of the execution of a Vietcong lieutenant. Elsewhere, art photographers such as Bruce Weber, Duane Michals, and Mary Ellen Mark weigh in, personalizing aspects of their craft. Celebrities contribute also, and strive not to sound vapid. These include: Ginger Rogers, Joan Rivers, Tony Bennett, Dennis Hopper, and Naomi Campbell. More lively are the views of everyday folks. Rock fan Gina Greco nimbly explains the ``wild monster'' appeal she finds in a portrait of Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose. For some, family snapshots are the most emotionally loaded, as with convict Aida Rivera, whose HIV-positive sister Yvette poses proudly with her children, presaging her death. Other inclusions run the gamut—high-tech scientific studies, snapshots, advertising imagery, film stills, pornography. The book will accompany a traveling exhibition, which opens at New York's International Center of Photography this fall. Its contents are also being issued on CD-ROM. A slick and calculated crowd-pleaser of a project that ably pits fine art against popular culture.

Pub Date: Oct. 3, 1994

ISBN: 0-8118-0382-1

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994

Categories:

ART & PHOTOGRAPHY

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THE SPECTER OF COMMUNISM

THE UNITED STATES AND THE ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR, 1917-1953

by Melvyn P. Leffler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1994

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A brief but thoughtful essay outlining the terrible misapprehensions that led to escalating tensions between the US and the Soviet Union from the close of WW I to the end of the Korean conflict. Although anti-Bolshevik feelings ran high even at the time of the Russian Revolution, fear of the USSR didn't dominate American foreign policy until after WW II. Drawing on materials newly available from Soviet, East European, and Chinese archives, Leffler (winner of the 1993 Bancroft Prize for A Preponderance of Power) deftly traces the history of US-Soviet relations in prÇcis, from the Bolsheviks' rise to power through the uneasy truce in Korea. Begining as an ideological clash, the tension between the two nations only gradually became a power struggle as well. Indeed, it was only when the USSR became a player on the same global scale as the US (albeit considerably weaker in key strategic areas after the pounding it took during WW II) that the Soviets were perceived as an active threat abroad. On the other hand, seen through the distorting mirror of obsessive anti-Communism, domestic American radicals were regarded as a danger almost from the first murmur of the word ``Bolshevik'' in the popular press, and it was the specter of homegrown subversion rather than foreign invasion that haunted American policies for a long time. Leffler retells this often familiar material methodically, using the new documentation to reveal Stalin as hesitant and tentative in foreign policy, primarily concerned with erecting a security buffer around Russia rather than building an evil empire. The portrait that emerges is of two superpowers-in-formation engaged in a grim dialogue of the deaf, with terrible consequences for humanity. Although much of the ground covered is well trod, this is an admirably complete introduction to the history of the Cold War.