Pen, Ink & Evidence: A Study of Writing & Writing Materials for the Penman, Collector & Document Detective

by Joe Nickell

First edition, third printing with corrections

228 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1990

About the author

Joe Nickell was an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal.
Nickell was a senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and wrote regularly for their journal, Skeptical Inquirer. He was also an associate dean of the Center for Inquiry Institute. He was the author or editor of over 30 books.
Among his career highlights, Nickell helped expose the James Maybrick "Jack the Ripper Diary" as a hoax. In 2002, Nickell was one of a number of experts asked by scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. to evaluate the authenticity of the manuscript of Hannah Crafts' The Bondwoman's Narrative (1853–1860), possibly the first novel by an African-American woman. At the request of document dealer and historian Seth Keller, Nickell analyzed documentation in the dispute over the authorship of "The Night Before Christmas", ultimately supporting the Clement Clarke Moore claim.

Reviews

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you work with documents or writing, this is an important book to have around. Just following the instructions for making a quill pen gave me a new appreciation for the difficulties of writing in earlier centuries. Nickell discusses inks, papers, pens, writing--everything imaginable. Lots of photographs. This isn't a book to read cover to cover, but it's a very useful reference.

[Kathy Sebesta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever been curious how experts decide how one piece of writing's real while another's a forgery? In relatively quick fashion, this text will guide you thru. A lot of it's boring to the non-"document detective," like telling the difference between a cinnamon shaker and a sand shaker, but it all fits together. And some of it's downright fascinating.

I especially liked the sections on the development of the alphabet. "...At first the Romans dropped Z entirely, then found they could not get along without it. When they allowed Z to return to the alphabet, it had lost its place in the regular order [it was sixth in the Greek alphabet] and had to get to the end of the line. We have kept it there ever since."

Also interesting, pegging era to the style in which letters are constructed. And why they happen to be formed that way!