Timeline
The history of
shorthand is vast, spanning nearly 3300 years. As witnesses to history,
shorthand writers recorded the events, public orations, and private
journals that make up our understanding of Western civilization. This
topic's timeline is made up of sketches of the history of stenography
-- highlights, if you will -- and as such is not intended to be all-inclusive.
Featured below are intersections between stenography and literature.
"Go
to the full timeline database for this project, which allows for
interactive browsing and searching and is paired with a related database
of annotated links to online resources."]
Samuel Pepys used
the Shelton stenography system, calledTachygraphy, to write his famous
diary and letters, including his account of the Great Fire of London
and Charles II's own rendition of his escape after the battle of Worcester.
Charles Dickens
studied stenography and commenced at the age of 18 on what promised
to be a long, brilliant career as a parliamentary reporter for the Mirror
of Parliament until the publication of Pickwick Papers launched him
as a novelist. In David Copperfield, Dickens draws on what are surely
his own memories as his eponymous hero reflects on his reporting career:
"I have tamed that savage stenographic mystery. I make a respectable
income by it. I am in high repute for my accomplishment in all pertaining
to the art" (Carlton)
John
Byrom, English poet and Jacobite, nicknamed the "Grand Master,"
created his own shorthand system and counted members of parliament and
royalty among his pupils. His shorthand system, Universal English Shorthand,
was published posthumously.
