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The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 22 Jul 2010, 23:40
by AlexStories
Silly question, maybe, but I have always wondered about the two little dashes below the d on 'enid' I love them, but I've never seen them done before, does anyone know anything about them?

Re: The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 23 Jul 2010, 11:04
by tix
AlexStories wrote on - Jul 22, 2010 10:40 pm

I have always wondered about the two little dashes below the d on 'enid' ....

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It’s quite odd how two little dashes under a name can cause mystification. After all, they’re just two little dashes but as most other people (if not all) sign their name without any trimmings, perhaps there’s reason for asking.

I don’t think it’s a “Silly Question.”

Years ago a girl and I exchanged letters and one day I received her "Question!”

“Why do you always put two little dashes beneath your name?” she enquired.

I told her that it was simply out of respect for Enid Blyton whom I admired very much. It was a kind of “imitation” thing.

Now we have to wonder whether Enid Blyton copied the idea from someone else or whether her publishers added it just for decoration.

Or we can speculate!

The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 31 Oct 2012, 01:08
by Maureen1954
Enid Blyton
//



I was just wondering re the 2 dashes underneath Enid Blyton's name that is her unique signature.

Did she possibly come up with idea to add them to her nameas a statement of some kind because in Barbara Stoney's biography of Enid Blyton on page 24 Enid had sent a coded letter to her friend Mirabel as Enid was on holiday in Annecy France in summer of 1913.

Enid had separated each code word with these same 2 //

Cheers & Gingerbeers

Maureen

Re: The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 31 Oct 2012, 19:18
by pete9012S
Not sure of the exact answer to this question Maureen,but in 1942, August - Enid Biyton's Readers 1-3 - saw the first use of her now famous logo-signature and the first work with Eileen Soper.
But when did the // first appear????

Image

Re: The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 07 Nov 2012, 13:34
by Poppy
Image

Them ones /
If so I don't know why they are there... :|

Re: The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 07 Nov 2012, 16:39
by Darrell71
Yeah, it mystifies me... 2 little dashes under a D?

Or she probably just got programmed. You know, that happens..... like oh, lemme put a dash underneath here, and then ya keep on doing it...

Re: The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 07 Nov 2012, 16:52
by Poppy
Well, it was her signiture and a signiture you can choose yourself, so maybe she just wanted to 'jazz' it up a bit! :D

Re: The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 07 Nov 2012, 17:20
by Fiona1986
I'm not sure there's any real "meaning" to the lines. Lots of people add flourishes or lines to their signatures, though as Blyton's signature started appearing on books it's possible she decided to make it more of a logo with the dashes. I'd have suggested it was a publisher's idea - but she worked with umpteen different ones through the years. It could have been her agent, of course, but Blyton seemed a pretty strong character when it came to dealing with her agent and her publishers, almost going as far as to dictate to them what she would write and when she would write it, so I'm not sure she'd agree to alter her signature for them!

Re: The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 07 Nov 2012, 17:23
by Poppy
Well I think it looks really good! :D

Re: The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 08 Nov 2012, 08:11
by Darrell71
Yup! Tho I'd never noticed it before this thread, when Pete posted this:
pete9012S wrote:
Image
I felt it was somehow incomplete. So I now know that I wouldn't have her sign any other way!

Re: The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 08 Nov 2012, 09:48
by Maureen1954
Fiona1986 wrote:I'm not sure there's any real "meaning" to the lines. Lots of people add flourishes or lines to their signatures, though as Blyton's signature started appearing on books it's possible she decided to make it more of a logo with the dashes. I'd have suggested it was a publisher's idea - but she worked with umpteen different ones through the years. It could have been her agent, of course, but Blyton seemed a pretty strong character when it came to dealing with her agent and her publishers, almost going as far as to dictate to them what she would write and when she would write it, so I'm not sure she'd agree to alter her signature for them!
Very good point Fiona and it makes more sense how you have portrayed her signature,I just did a bit of scouting around the " Cave of Books" and saw the book .....

First Term at Malory Towers published in 1946 by Methuen with her current signature

Image

Re: The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 19 Nov 2012, 15:37
by Ming
I can't think of any valid reason for the dashes, but they certainly do make her signature look very fancy, and now, seeing her 'old' signature, without the dashes, I feel like I'm missing something.

Re: The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 20 Nov 2012, 14:48
by Moonraker
A bit like your signature without the wings!

Re: The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 20 Nov 2012, 17:26
by Darrell71
Exactly! Wouldn't it feel funny!

Re: The two // in Enid Blyton's Signature

Posted: 21 Nov 2012, 13:43
by Poppy
Maybe it was passed down through the family or something?