What adaptations allowed left-handers to write left-to-right with dip pens?

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I am left-handed, and never experienced this problem with dip-pens or fountain pens as a child /young woman, since the hand is below the current writing line. The main problem is not being able to see what you have just written. Some left-hander do adopt the "over the top" grip illustrated, I never have.

However, it was not just in the Soviet Union lefties were forced to write with their right hand. My mother, born 1920, was, and even in the 40s/50s it was not uncommon - I started school in1954/55 and suspect I was among the first cohorts allowed to write with my left. George VI was forced to write with his right hand, which may have contributed to his speech difficulties in adulthood.

Given the history of imposing right-handedness, and the "sinister" connotations of the left - still prevalent, I believe in the Islamic world - it may well be that writing with the left hand was simply not an option until modern times, so no adaptation was needed.

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I imagine that writing slowly, therefore allowing the ink to dry, would me one means of allowing left-handers to write with wet ink.

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In Soviet Union in 1970-s all schoolchildren were taught to write with their right hand, no matter whether they were right or left handed by birth. Until the 5-th grade we could only write with steel dip pen. Since the 5-th grade fountain pens were permitted.

When I traveled abroad for the first time in 1990, I was very surprised to see a substantial number of people who write with their left hand.

EDIT. Here is a photo of the standard Soviet school dip pen: http://img11.nnm.me/8/3/3/c/9/233294a1325d7e86402ab2a2624.jpg

Upvote:5

The two lefthanders in my high school class wrote with their left hand curled completely around the paper to place the left hand above and to the right of the line being written.

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