Brilliant! When I saw the title of this post, my first thought was a boustrephedon style, which didn't make much sense as far as saving paper, but this is ingenious, because the reader can easily ignore the vertical lines while reading the horizontal.

They don't seem to mention it there, but postage fees were the reason for this. You can see the stamp on that first sheet. Back in those days postage was very expensive and was charged per sheet sent. So that method of bi-directional writing was developed to reduce what, at that time, was a significant expense.

This was common in the 19th century, I believe. I've seen it three ways also (two diagonal).

This letter was written ten years before the world's first adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black, was issued. However, when you consider that, at the same time, quarter farthings (one-sixteenth of a penny) were in circulation, spending a penny (not to be confused with "spending a penny" for a public loo) was a big deal...

Good for you Joshua for even knowing about boustrephedonic writing!!!!!
It is still "employed" in printers.

I would have sent a txt.

The concept makes for a good backdrop!

A lot older than 19th C I believe:

The Archimedes palimpsest.

Ps. Mmmmm nice Michael!

The Archimedes palimpsest is something different, as the vertical direction was erased, not meant to be read. Parchment was expensive, and they figured, this old stuff is not as important as another prayer book. So they scratched off the letters on an old parchment, rebound it at right angles and re-used it to write something else, in this case a prayer book. In 1908 a scholar figured out that the scraped-off letters were the only surviving manuscript of Archimedes' original account of how he made his discoveries. It is mind-blowingly brilliant and innovative, and probably the greatest discovery in history of science. Now, with infra-red photography, I think they are able to read the whole thing.

Michael: great idea. I have a feeling we are going to see some more of these from you—at least I hope so!

Michael, awesome!
I really like your modern layouts.
Kind of like Twombly, but with content.
More abstract than Zapf.
Also reminded of Scher's maps -- have you though about doing these on canvas, for gallery megabucks?
And posters for further monetization.

Yes Michael, I second Nick's sentiments.

My friend Seb Lester is doing alright with limited edition poster sales, and I'm sure you would too.

Thank you guys very much. There are 4 of them, with clock works stuck in the middle of them. I did a series of over 20 clocks in the early part of the decade. These 4 were some of my favorites, simple, lots of texture, fun and they seemed to get past the usual reaction of: oh, they are only letters.

If they weren't so anemic they would probably make great tiles.

This one is called time and the previous was Alphabet.

@ Nick Can you direct me to the maps please????????

Paula gave a great presentation at TypeCon New York.
She is also featured in the current Eye (Autumn).
http://www.eyemagazine.com/issue.php?id=177
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-sawyers/paula-scher-mapping-out-a_b_...