Learn all about the practice of graphology, or handwriting analysis, in these books that explain what it is and how it works or check out a few novels where graphology plays a part in the plot.

Graphology

Edgar Allan Poe Analyzes Handwriting: A Chapter on Autobiography
By Edgar Allen Poe
Edgar Allan Poe's classic work of graphology includes as much literary criticism as it does handwriting analysis. It also serves as an overview of the major literary figures of his time - some still well-known, many forgotten.

Signature for Success: How to Analyze Handwriting and Improve Your Career, Your Relationships, and Your Life
By Arlyn Imberman with June Rifkin
In Signature for Success, Arlyn J. Imberman shares her handwriting-analysis techniques to help you better understand yourself, your coworkers, and your friends and family, thus improving your relationships. The way people form letters, the size of their script, the pressure they put on the page, the speed of their writing, the space between their words, their fluidity, legibility, stroke, and slant – all are keys to their inner workings. Imberman shares intriguing tricks of the trade: the six personality types of handwriting; how to read a handwriting sample; how to improve compatibility in romantic, business, and family relationships; how to recognize the "dark side" of people; and how to make better choices when hiring. Signature for Success also includes handwriting samples and assessments of famous, infamous, and everyday people.

The Definitive Book of Handwriting Analysis: The Complete Guide to Interpreting Personalities, Detecting Forgeries, and Revealing Brain Activity Through the Science of Graphology
By Marc Seifer
The ability to write by hand is a pinnacle of human achievement. As a form of self-expression, handwriting reflects a person's thoughts about the self and reveals aspects of a person's personality. Written in a step-by-step fashion, The Definitive Book of Handwriting Analysis begins with the history of the field and then teaches you how to analyze any handwriting, starting with objective criteria, including variables such as organization, speed, size, shape, slant, and symbolic features. Then you learn how to combine these variables to create a full personality profile.

Simply Handwriting Analysis
By Eve Bingham
This book explains what handwriting analysis is and why it works and gives a brief history of the art. Then, it delves into every aspect of writing: the way the writing moves across the page; the meaning of the pen, pencil and ink chosen; the slope of the script; the amount of space between words; the size and shape of the individual letters, and signatures. There is even an examination of writing styles in headed paper, logos, shop signs, and other situations where the lettering has to make a good impression. Samples throughout illustrate every point in fine visual style.

Analyze This: What Handwriting Reveals
By Allan Conway
Here's a fun and effective way to interpret someone's energy level, work habits, and a host of other traits-all from a brief analysis of his or her handwriting. Study details such as baseline slope, shape of individual letters, and distance between words; and see how these factors reveal the different characteristics of the writer. Engaging individual case studies consider slant, size, and overall appearance, and additional chapters focus on left-handedness, signatures, creating a graphology chart, and compatibility in relationships and work.

Graphology in fiction

Poison Pen
By Sheila Lowe
Forensic handwriting expert Claudia Rose uses her expertise when an old friend-turned-enemy is found dead. Is the suicide note found near the woman's body a fake? Claudia's instincts push her to investigate further, and she quickly becomes entangled in a far darker scenario than she bargained for.

Shadow Queen
By Tony Gibbs
Diana Speed becomes involved in the investigation into the murder of an eccentric old woman who may have been killed by someone eager to possess four-hundred-year-old letters purportedly written by Mary Queen of Scots.

Diary: A Novel
By Chuck Palahniuk
Misty Wilmot has had it. Once a promising young artist, she's now stuck on an island ruined by tourism, drinking too much and working as a waitress in a hotel. Her husband, a contractor, is in a coma after a suicide attempt, but that doesn't stop his clients from threatening Misty with lawsuits over a series of vile messages they've found on the walls of houses he remodeled. Suddenly, though, Misty finds her artistic talent returning as she begins a period of compulsive painting. Inspired but confused by this burst of creativity, she soon finds herself a pawn in a larger conspiracy that threatens to cost hundreds of lives.

At First Sight: A Kaycee Miller Mystery
By Jodie Larsen
Waking up in a strange motel room, Kaycee Miller finds a terrified child at her bedside. At first, Miller, a psychologist specializing in handwriting analysis, is certain she's dreaming. But one touch of the girl's tear-streaked face convinces her that this nightmare is all too real. The door to the adjoining room is ajar, and the man sleeping inside is armed. Kaycee and the girl flee-but soon discover it is already too late to escape.

Book descriptions provided by BookLetters.