What's it like for you to be an American?

“Every person’s story is written plainly on [their] face, though not everyone can read it.”
—August Sander

“Handwriting tells a story...and there’s a simple truth. Something written by hand brings a singular human presence.... Something written by hand is a piece of your personality on paper.”
—Anna Quindlen

Dear Reader,

As you contemplate the stories written on the American faces you will meet on these pages, and reflect upon the stories they have set down by hand, I hope that you may connect to their humanity, and in so doing find the parallel to your own story.

—Robert Kalman