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{ 2008 12 31 }

Name that Signature

Many of the SHC’s collections contain letters, notes, cards, and other writings by individuals of a certain historical celebrity. We have many items signed by presidents, sports stars, famous actors, authors, and more.

A number of these luminaries actually have pretty poor penmanship. So, just for fun, we thought we’d share a few squiggly ones here to see if you, the reader, can guess the name behind the signatures. If you’d like to guess, please do so in the comment box below. Later we’ll share the identities of these mystery folks.

Here’s a clue: all of the following are signatures of famous writers of the 20th century.

1

2

3

4

Posted by Biff Hollingsworth on Wednesday, December 31, 2008, at 10:50 am, and filed under Just for Kicks, Staff Finds, Writers. Follow any responses to this post with its comments RSS feed. You can post a comment or trackback from your blog.

{ 9 } Comments

  1. Jatin Prajapati | 7 January 2009 at 10:13 am | Permalink

    no comment

  2. Jatin Prajapati | 7 January 2009 at 10:14 am | Permalink

    reply fast

  3. BillyBoy | 7 January 2009 at 5:11 pm | Permalink

    I think #2 might be william faulkner & #3 ernest hemmingway

  4. Biff Hollingsworth | 8 January 2009 at 9:48 am | Permalink

    Thanks for the guesses. #2 is deceptive…it’s a last name.

    I think this round of signatures might have been a bit too challenging out of the gate. Just goes to show how difficult this kind of historical detective work can be when bits and pieces are taken out of context.

    I’m happy to give another clue – their initials are as follows:

    1. C.A.
    2. W.C.W.
    3. E.P.
    4. H.L.M.

  5. Kevin Cherry | 8 January 2009 at 2:59 pm | Permalink

    1) Conrad Aiken
    2) William Carlos Williams
    3) And if you hadn’t said, “writer,” I woudl have said this was Elvis Presley
    4) ???

  6. Biff Hollingsworth | 8 January 2009 at 10:33 pm | Permalink

    Good guesses!

    Conrad Aiken is correct for #1.
    William Carlos Williams is correct for #2.

  7. Caitlin Shanley | 9 January 2009 at 12:34 am | Permalink

    Could #3 be Ezra Pound?

  8. Caitlin Shanley | 9 January 2009 at 12:38 am | Permalink

    I’ll take a stab at #4, too – H.L. Mencken?

  9. Biff Hollingsworth | 9 January 2009 at 12:52 am | Permalink

    Exactly. Nice work, Caitlin!

    Ezra Pound is our third mystery scribbler and H.L. Mencken is the fourth.

    Thanks to all who made guesses. These letters come from a great collection of literary materials, the records of “Contempo”, a journal of literature and social commentary published by Milton Abernethy and Anthony Buttitta in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, from 1931 to 1934.

    The “Contempo” collection in the SHC contains letters from the above correspondents and many more famous authors of the early 20th century: T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Hart Crane, Gertrude Stein, e.e. cummings, Langston Hughes, and others.

    Please check out the finding aid for more detailed information:
    http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/c/Contempo.html

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