Spencerian Penmanship

The workbook is clear, concise, and easy to understand. The method is exceptionally good. I am already much more aware of how to form my letters than I ever was before. The theory section helps me to understand intellectually what I am doing, while the practice pages allow me to achieve both mastery and crucial muscle memory. The practice pages use what I believe is a French rule, so I will look for some of that paper for fountain pen practice, since that is what I typically use. I homeschooled my kids and we used the old Palmer Method workbooks. I wish we had access to these books instead, since I think it would have saved a lot of trouble and resulted in better handwriting. For that matter, I wish we had these when I was in school.

Ok, so this is one of my quirkier Amazon purchases, but I wanted to show students in one of my courses what it was like to learn to write in the 19th century. We read one of Spencer's books outlining his theory of penmanship, and then I bought some dip pens off of eBay and we practiced using these copybooks. I didn't realize that there's a set of 5 available, moving from simpler strokes and pen movements to more complex ones. This is the first of the series but you can also buy the whole set. If you actually wanted to learn Spencerian Penmanship, this would do it. The copybook starts with really simple strokes and gradually increases in complexity until you are practicing whole sentences. (Of course, in the 19th century you might want to learn Spencer's "ladies' hand" if you were a woman. I don't think there's a copy book for that.) Most of us enjoyed practicing with these books and if I had more time, I might actually go through and complete the whole series. Some of the students hated it though, and were stressed out by aiming for the kind of perfection required here.

Good resource for Spencerian calligraphy

I purchased this with the intention of helping my child with their cursive practice. The book and pages are very thin. You cannot use this with a fountain pen (which wasn't my intention anyway). The letter formation boxes are exceptionally small and a child doesn't have the dexterity to use it properly. Overall, it is a nice piece of ephemera but I don't think it is very practical.

Very old timey and fun. I have been wanting to improve my penmanship with my fountain pens, and this was perfect for that purpose. Great instruction and lots of room to practice. My penmanship is already looking better!

While the cover is absolutely beautiful, the inside is quite boring. It is almost like getting a blank journal book.

Great copy book for learning spenserian or just to improve your handwriting.

Teach yourself something beautiful. Really nice descriptive book. So much fun to practice. Really enjoy it.

This is one book of a six book set. The front and back cover includes explanations for each of the practice letters in this booklet but don't go into as much detail as the theory book does. The original theory book is public domain by the way but the reprint in this set is affordable and much more convenient than scrolling through PDF pictures of an old document. Some other reviews mentioned that they could not use a fountain pen because of the quality/thickness of the paper. I am using an extra fine nib and cheap ink which seems to be working just fine. I have had no bleed through so far after completing the first page. Very handy that these are available on prime so if you don't want to shell out 30 for the whole set you can buy them one or two at a time.

Pathetic product

I have the whole set - You have to practice (and get the whole set). It's fun going back into history this way. What is now considered an art, just about everyone learned not even a century ago.

Looks easy to understand, but then again I've only read the first couple pages. Will revisit the review section if need be.

If you wnt to learn more about writing's history.