The Frenchman I Never Knew
© By Abraham Lincoln

In the early days, finding one new calligrapher was quite a task. This was a long time before personal computers were available so telephones or personal letters were used to locate people. I was looking for calligraphers — people whose reputation in handwriting was on levels beyond ordinary handwriting.

Raymond Franklin DaBoll, the author of Recollections of the Lyceum and Chautauqua Circuits, lived in Batesville, Arkansas. His book introduced me to calligraphy because he had used his unique handwriting style to write the entire book in.

At the time I was teaching in Greene County Ohio and thought his book would be something my students could use to work on their personal handwriting. So I wrote to the publisher, Bond Wheelwright Company, and asked if I could get a “review” copy. 

Thea Wheelwright, the owner and publisher, wrote back and said she could not send a review or free copy but I might be able to get one from the author. So I took off for Batesville, Arkansas to meet Ray and learn more about his unique handwriting style.

Ray invited me to spend at least a week with him and his wife, Irene, the concert pianist who played at concerts all over the world, including one at Xenia, Ohio. I ended up staying with them for a week and during this time period I was able to glean a number of names and addresses of calligraphers in this country and abroad. 

Those names became the nucleus of my search for calligraphers. Each time I wrote to someone, I’d ask if they knew anyone else who was interested in or did calligraphy. One man, whose name I have long since forgotten, was a Frenchman.

In a week or two his reply arrived and after anxiously opening it, I saw the names and addresses of a dozen people he knew to be calligraphers. In time, I wrote to all of the men on his list of names and got a reply.

I lost the name and address of the Frenchman who had helped me get started in my new career in calligraphy. He had introduced me to the finest scribes in the world.

John Shyvers from London; Tom Gourdie from Scotland; Villu Toots from Estonia; Professor Doctor Albert Kapr from East Germany and to many others including Donald Jackson from London — the scribe to the Queen of England. 

One of the men he introduced me to, Alfred Fairbank, the man who was largely responsible for the italic style of handwriting he was promoting in his book, A Handwriting Manual. 

Alfred introduced me to Edward Johnston who had rediscovered the square cut pen after studying quill pens made by the scribes back to the Medieval Ages. He wanted a fountain pen with that kind of nib — square cut.

Many others, besides myself, wanted to see italic handwriting used in schools as a replacement for the cursive styles that had been popular in school for over a century. 

But it never happened and, as a result, the so-called “beautiful hand writers” divorced themselves from actually writing calligraphy, and took on the decorative arts and lettering. They splashed all manner of letters on watercolor paper and called it “Art.”

Now, these many years later, I am stuck on ballpoints but collect fountain pens and pencils. I am especially interested in mechanical pencils and fountain pens made by Esterbrook.

I have often wondered what ever became of the Frenchman?