(*Portrait
and bio taken with permission from Michael Sull’s Spencerian Script and
Ornamental Penmanship, Volume I.)
Clinton H. Clark
(1864-1937)
Clinton
H. Clark was one of those rare artists who, like Francis Courtney, seemed to
have the skill to produce penmanship that bordered on the impossible. He was
born in New York, April 15,1864. When eight years old, he told his father that
he intended to make his living with a pen. Through years of study and
determined work, he developed into a penman of uncommon ability He taught in
business schools in San Antonio, Texas; Buffalo, New York; Hutchinson, Kansas;
and Sioux City, Iowa. From 1916 until his death he was connected with Strayer's
Business School in Philadelphia. In 1893 he won first prize in a worldwide
contest conducted by the Penman's Art Journal. In so doing, the Journal classed
him as one of the most skillful penmen in the United States. His offhand
flourishing was on peer with Fielding Schofield and John Williams not only in
exquisite renderings, but in his original designs as well. He died at age 73 on
June 6, 1937.
(*Specimen
courtesy of Bob Hurford.)
