Flavorwire

Like all literary nerds, we’re fascinated by the marginalia of our favorite authors, and recently we’ve been totally addicted to examining their handwritten manuscripts and journal entries. Thanks to the our new favorite Tumblr, Fuck yeah, manuscripts!, there are many examples at hand, but after spending a significant time sifting through, we wondered if we were really learning anything. In an attempt to be pop-psychologists, we checked out a 5-minute online handwriting analysis test (meant, obviously, for hiring managers), to see if we could dig up anything on our favorite writers. We found the results to be something like a horoscope — a little bit right for everybody, but probably kind of random. Click through to check out the handwriting of ten famous writers, and see what it might say about them.

Emily Dickinson’s manuscript of “Wild Nights”

The relatively severe right slant of the letters indicates a writer who is “emotional and garrulous,” but the steadfastness of the line (without any rule marks, natch) indicates a controlled, goal-oriented individual, so we’re not sure what’s going on there. Her large writing suggest a need for attention and “elbow room,” which we’re not sure quite tracks either. But large loops are supposed to mean sensual and hungry, which we totally buy.