As to Fred Eager, whom i had the pleasure of having lunch with in the mid 70s. He wrote one book , soft covered, It Italic Way to Beautiful Handwriting. The point being Fred was a principal of a private school in Ct. He was an advocate of teaching children how to write Italic in a cursive mode. That is where the emphasis is. Not based on historical examples. Thats where Sheila come into the picture. I can assure the reader that for many years Sheila had strict guidelines for this hand following Johnstons rules. Which i have posted on another thread here.
The point being, she began to relax her own position on making pen angle changes in a letter or even a stroke. Not attributed to her learning anything new in Italic (as she is very well versed) but competition from other well know calligraphers who had a different way . The time was right. Secondly, people on the west coast as well as Canada, had a different form of Italic. Not so much dependent on Johnstons rules. This was in the early 80s.
There are certain things that really should be taken into consideration when developing Italic as opposed to Chancery. Above everything else, one should be consistent. JERRY