Fifty Mysterious Postcards

[KathrynShorthand]

After quietly and slowly collecting postcards with messages written in Pitman Shorthand for nearly 40 years, last month I had a book published by The History Press. The book's called Fifty Mysterious Postcards: Pitman Shorthand Messages from the Golden Age of the Postcard. Fascinating examples of postcards and the stories written in the dots, dashes, lines, circles and squiggles of Pitman. The ISBN is 9781803990460 and it's available to order from all major booksellers.

[rpcollector]

This looks great and I've just ordered a copy of your book! I have a couple of cards in my collection with shorthand on the back and always wondered what the message said.

[Moonraker]

I have a couple of cards with shorthand messages, another with a message in an archaic form of Welsh and another with "mirror" handwriting, probably the work of a print compositor accustomed to reading beds of type used for printing publications.

[archeslights]

I have a couple of cards with shorthand messages, another with a message in an archaic form of Welsh and another with "mirror" handwriting, probably the work of a print compositor accustomed to reading beds of type used for printing publicationspenalty kick online

Interesting! It would be great if you could share more photos of them.

[Sophiana]

Congratulations on publishing your book!slope
What inspired you to start collecting postcards written in Pitman Shorthand, and how did you go about deciphering the messages?

[Vanwolleghem]

That's wonderful! I am going to buy a torso sex doll for my friend, and wondering what I should say on the postcard.