Correspondence by handwritten letters

How writing has changed over time

The methods people use to correspond with others have changed greatly over the past several years. Many of the changes have taken place within my own lifetime, and often have gone in unexpected directions. Even within our own family, the most common method of corresponding over long distances was by handwritten letter. This was the case for us until the 1990s, when we began entering the era of electronic mail. I won’t say that we as a family have fully changed over to newer electronic methods of communicating, because at least some of our family members still write letters, and in longhand cursive, still maintaining some of the traditional emphasis on penmanship.

I remember that one of my college professors, Dr. Matt Ellis, a philosophy professor at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., once spent a good portion of a class period encouraging us to develop a habit of writing. He was not talking about any one method of writing, or any one instrument of writing, but he was trying to encourage us as thoughtful people to form a habit of putting our thoughts in writing. Dr. Ellis held that nothing contributes more to clear thinking, sound logic and cogent development of ideas than spending deliberate time working through ideas and expressing them with clarity on paper.

Those were days in the early 1960s when making notes in class meant carrying a notebook composed of a spiral back and ruled paper pages, along with a trusty fountain pen (ink pen), or maybe a ball-point pen, or a lead pencil, and scribbling discern-able comments onto the page, letter by letter and line by line. Of course some students developed a shorthand for taking notes, either using standard stenographer’s graphics or by making up their own shortened representations of words and ideas.

Isn’t it weird that not so long ago, a stenographer was a valued member of an efficient business office? Writing a business letter in the office usually involved having the boss dictate the letter to a secretary, who would use stenographer’s skills to put the boss’s thoughts on paper in shorthand notes, and who would then take the shorthand notes to the typewriter and type out the letter neatly on company letterhead. An envelope would be addressed, a postage stamp would be affixed, and a return address added, and the letter would be neatly folded and placed in the envelope, sealed, and sent to the post office for delivery.

Then, as I think about the system of post offices in our country, and of the U.S. Postal Service, it is amazing to me that humankind for thousands of years has corresponded by handwritten letters, even before there was such a thing as a post office or a postal service. For example, in Bible times, people were writing and sending letters to other people over long distances and sometimes under very challenging conditions. Consider the New Testament letters written by the Apostle Paul. In one letter he concluded the last few sentences in his own “hand,” even boasting about what large letters he used. But normally he had someone writing for him while he spoke the message. Once the letter was written on paper or parchment, then came the considerable task of delivering it. There was no post office, no postal service. So delivering the letter meant that someone had to travel and carry the letter to the recipients.

I remember that I started school in Pea Ridge in 1946 well equipped with writing supplies. I had a yellow wood pencil with a built-in eraser on the top, and a Big Chief writing tablet. Today, apparently we have redefined what it means to have a tablet. Who would think of a red-covered pinned pack of ruled-writing paper when you say “tablet?” No, “tablet” has primarily come to mean a computer, sort of an expanded smart phone. You can write notes, make a phone call, send a text, take a picture, record a comment, even look up something on the Internet.

My Big Chief tablet in 1946 was not that talented, but it was pretty good for writing things down, sketching, working addition and subtraction, listing spelling words, forming letters and numerals, and all that.

In earlier days, good handwriting skills were an essential aspect of being an educated person. For schools such as the Pea Ridge Academy (Pea Ridge College), penmanship was a major and essential component of the curriculum. Preparing for a business career, or aspiring to be a writer, lawyer or teacher meant honing one’s penmanship. Having a nice “hand” —meaning being able to write neatly, clearly and attractively — was seen as an indispensable ingredient for success in many ventures in life.

Considering that history, it is amazing to realize that, today, handwriting skills, especially cursive handwriting skills, are often regarded as of minimal value for practical and academic pursuits. When one takes note of today’s often sloppily written emails and carelessly composed texts and “tweets,” one can wonder at the great literature which historically has been composed worldwide in the form of hand-written letters, essays and books, accomplished without any of the electronic aids that are common today.

Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history, member of the Pea Ridge Alumni Association and vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. Opinions expressed are those of the writer. He can be contacted by email at joe369@centurytel.net, or call 621-1621.