Prior to Typewriters, was there any hope for an author of terrible handwriting to see his work published?

by Cookielolz
ethanjf99

Sure.

You could dictate the work to a transcriptionist. Agatha Christie wrote several novels featuring her alter ego, Ariadne Oliver, that describe this: Ms. Oliver dictates her work to a typist. Of course in earlier days you could dictate to a scribe.

Alternatively if your writing was not completely indecipherable you could pay someone to transcribe it into legible form.