Cross-Writing

Feb. 28, 2009 — Cross-writing is a technique for saving writing paper. It was used mostly in the 19th century. After a page of writing had been completed – or usually after both sides of a sheet were filled in – then the writer turned the page 90 degrees and continued, adding a second layer of text, perpendicular to the first. Cross-writing is surprisingly easy to read, as a reader’s mind naturally tunes out the irrelevant lines. (Further layers of text are possible, at other angles, but this reduces legibility very quickly.)

This is a sample of Charles Darwin’s cross-writing, from 1828.

And here is another sample of cross-writing — by my great-great grand-uncle, James Charles Andrews (1839-1886). He studied medicine and received a degree, but he never practiced medicine. He was a Quaker, a commissioned officer in the Civil War, a factory owner, and a banker. His handwriting seems, at first glance, like an example of “Spencerian scribbling” — but it’s actually the smooth, rapid hand of a mature writer, someone with a solid grounding in formal penmanship.

Many people disapproved of cross-writing. Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) wrote: “When you get to the end of a notesheet, and find you have more to say, take another piece of paper – a whole sheet, or a scrap, as the case may demand, but whatever you do, don’t cross! Remember the old proverb ‘Cross-writing makes cross-reading.’ ‘The old proverb?’ you say inquiringly. ‘How old?’ Well, not so very ancient, I must confess. In fact – I’m afraid I invented it while writing this paragraph.” (From: Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing, 1890.)