Wednesday, February 2, 2022

My Favorites: Handwritten Books

In college I couldn't decide between English and Art History, so I majored in both. It should come as no surprise that I have a slight obsession with a niche genre of book: those that are hand-written. I'm not talking about comics or graphic novels, both of which I do enjoy, but books where the author has actually written out the text of the book in their handwriting. Most often this is accompanied by art. Now, if Amazon reviews were to be believed these books are "annoying" and "unreadable", but my glasses-aided eyesight is up to the task! (Note: Don't read reviews on Amazon, stick to Goodreads. I have seen so many 1-star reviews because "the book arrived too late" or "the book was damaged" when it just had a deckled edge.) Here are some of my favorite authors and books.

Another note: it's possible that some of these books are not completely handwritten, but were composed in a font that is based on the author's handwriting. I spent much time comparing letters to try to figure this out, but then my brain exploded.

Lynda Barry

Lynda Barry is the queen of this genre and I adore all of her books. Every page is a combination of words, drawings, doodles, and collage. She has published many books in this format, but my favorites are What It Is and Picture This, which focus on creativity, writing, and where images come from.


Susan Branch

You may know Susan Branch from her illustrated cookbooks, but she has also written three memoirs that are illustrated by hand: The Fairy Tale Girl, Martha's Vineyard - Isle of Dreams, and A Fine Romance. The first two books cover her life in California and divorce, and then her move to Martha's Vineyard and start of her career as a professional artist. A Fine Romance is a travel journal of a trip to England which is great inspiration for keeping an illustrated journal.


Vivian Swift

I have read just one of Vivian Swift's books, When Wanderers Cease to Roam: A Traveler's Journal of Staying Put. It was published in 2008, but it turned out to be quite appropriate for pandemic times.


Danny Gregory

Danny Gregory has written many, many books in his signature sketchbook-like style. Some are memoirs and others are instructional drawing books. My favorite is The Creative License, which is focused on drawing and journal-keeping, but has a lot of great advice about creativity in general. Of all these artists, Danny Gregory is the one who makes me want to draw more. He makes it seem so accessible; he even has a book called How to Draw Without Talent.


Claudia Nice

Claudia Nice writes how-to books mainly about watercolor and pen-and-ink drawing. The textures she can achieve with watercolor are mind-blowing. I have Creating Textures in Pen and Ink with Watercolor and How To Keep a Sketchbook Journal, both of which are beautiful, but a lot more intimidating than Danny Gregory's books! I love looking at the work of accomplished artists though, and all of her books are worth studying if you are a watercolor artist. Note that although she has published multiple books, some of them repeat content.


Mary Woodin

Mary Woodin's The Painted Garden is charming. This book is a chronicle of her year in the garden, and is a bit more sparse than some of the others listed in this post, but I particularly love her watercolor flowers. I was so excited when I saw that Anne of My Giant Strawberry was writing an illustrated journal like this - in fact I think I heard of this book on her blog.


Lauren Redniss

Lauren Redniss is a new-to-me author that I only heard of a few weeks ago, so I haven't read any of her books yet. I did purchase Century Girl which is visually stunning. Unlike the authors above, Redniss uses mainly collage as her medium, which gives her books more of a scrapbook feel. Her books are also not personal journals or artist how-tos, but history and biography.



Do you like reading these types of books, or is it too hard on the eyes? Are there any authors I'm missing?

20 comments:

  1. Wow, a whole genre of books I have never come across. I love these, thank you so much for sharing. I would never have found these if you had not posted about them as I never knew they existed.

    I love that you have shared the pages about Lacock from one of the books. I had a Great Aunt who lived in that village and we visited a lot when I was a child it is a charming place and home to a delightful museum about the man who invented photographic negatives. My father worked for Kodak throughout my childhood so we often visited the museum.

    I love watercolour painting I will be on the look out for the Claudia Rice books. Thank you so much for sharing.

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    1. That is so neat! After reading your comment I had to look it up, I've seen it in Downton Abbey! There are so many places in England I hope to one day visit.

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  2. Wow, some amazing books there, I absolutely love them. I have one of Danny Gregory's - An Illustrated Life - which includes lots from other artists as well, I think you'd like it. CJ xx

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    1. I also have An Illustrated Life, it's great! He also has a similar book about travel journals which I also need to track down.

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  3. These look lovely - I have never read or even seen any of these!

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    1. Because they are bit of a niche genre, it's a little more difficult to track them down. Most of them I've had to order used (with the exception of Susan Branch's books) because they're out of print and the library doesn't have them.

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  4. I have never, ever heard of these style of books before. Like ever. And I'm been reading my WHOLE life.

    Thanks so much for bringing these to my attention. How fun and such an intimate view of the artist/author when seeing their actual handwriting.

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    1. This is why I love the Internet! There are so many cool things out there that I'm just not aware of. I had actually not thought about personality and handwriting, but now that I compare the writing to the authors, it makes so much sense.

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  5. Mollie Katzen - The Moosewood Cookbook! My copy is so old and food stained but I love the handwritten recipes, stories, and little drawings.

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    1. Ooh thank you! I haven't heard of that one and look forward to checking it out.

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  6. Treasures! Thank you for bringing these to our attention. They're beautiful.
    It's all over the news, so you have probably read about the little boy in Idaho? He snuck his hand-written Christmas story into his local library, and now there is a waiting list to check it out.

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    1. I did see that story, adorable! I hope he keeps it up!

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  7. I knew most of these already but was glad to find some new ones! I think you might also like Sara Midda's books. In and Out of the Garden is my favorite, but A Bowl of Olives and her South of France Sketchbook are also good.

    I haven't started designing the pages and text for my book, but I wasn't thinking I'd do the writing by hand. You've got me thinking, though doing so would probably mean the book would take another couple of years to finish, haha!

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    1. Thanks so much for the Sara Midda recommendation, her books look beautiful! I'm always excited to add another author like this to my shelf. Perhaps you could hand write some of the titles or captions? (I work in publishing so I know anything like that just adds to the costs... but it depends if you are going to self-publish or not.) Seeing the author's writing just adds to the intimacy of these types of books.

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  8. So delighted to find you, and to see that you know my friend Anne at My Giant Strawberry too. I was also going to recommend Sara Midda. Look forward to checking in with you more often. :-)

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  9. What a fantastic genre of books. I never knew it existed but it has such a lovely personal feel to it, like the author is writing just for the reader. Thank you for sharing x

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    1. That's a great way to put it - it does feel more intimate that a printed book.

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  10. These are my all time favourite genre of books. They hold my creative heart!
    For more you might like:
    SARK
    Lucy Knisley
    Florent Chavouet
    Julie Delporte
    Alice Oseman
    Tyler Feder
    Nora Krug
    Joyce Farmer
    Roz Chast
    Debbie Tung
    Teresa Wong
    Darryl Cunningham
    Meg-John Barker and Julia Scheele
    Ellen Forney
    & I write my own too.
    I wish there were more authors & artists creating books like this!

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    1. Thank you so much for all of these suggestions - I'm excited to look them up!

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