Left-Handers in Fiction

PLEASE NOTE: I recently (a few months ago, actually) went through the Project Gutenberg archives, searching for references to add to my list.  I was far more successful than I'd expected, and collected a huge number of fictional left-handers.  Since I do have stuff to do in real life, it has been slow work converting all this into properly formatted entries, so there are a lot of cryptic and unsorted entries at the end of this file - I'm slowly working through them. Please bear with me.

Important: I'm trying to reformat my list into a database run structure so I can actually quote some numbers from it.  This means I've stopped actively updating this list.  While it is considerably less clear than the layout below, the most recent copy of my list is in an interim spreadsheet here (.xls format) - I honestly hope to get this back into a usable format within a month once my exams are over.

This is a (non-definitive!) compilation of left-handed characters in books. The unattributed entries were found by me.  The rest have (due to name) at the end, and were suggested by that person (those names that are aliases are the ones used on used on www.ibdof.com ). See this page for my far less comprehensive list of real left-handers

If you have any suggestions, or wish to make use of this text please email me at borg<AT>kvetch<DOT>silentflame<DOT>com . Please do NOT simply copy this text onto your own website (or reproduce it by way of any other other medium). I have no objection to people using it for most purposes, but I want to make sure proper credit given to both my researchers and myself, and I want to keep track of where it is used. You are welcome to link directly here (if you want to do this, you might find it useful to know that each entry has an associated anchor, clearly visible in the source, should you wish to link to a specific entry.)

See this page for methodology and history of the project.

Each entry is in the form:
Left-hander's name - Book/Story title (Series/Anthology title) - Author (Author real name)
Descriptive text discussing the character.
“Quote from the book, if available. _Text_ in a quote indicates italics in the original text. *text* indicates bold in the same way.” [reference for the quote]
due to [the person who pointed it out to me (if blank, I found it)]

I hope to put the info into a more manipulate-able form one day (a database or something), but until then you will have to put up with this.
 

WARNING: This file contains several 'spoilers', which are almost guaranteed to spoil at least part of the plot for you.
You proceed at your own risk. I especially advise avoiding the 'murder' section, as most of the solutions are given away.

Principals/Principal Adjuncts

Alucius - Legacies (& Darknesses, Scepters, but I think all the references are in Legacies) -  L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
Naturally left-handed, trains himself to fight right-handed.
“They had also been practising with the rattan sabres, but on foot. Since the exercises were elementary, and well below Alucius's level, and since he didn't want to stand out, he'd decided his best course was to go through all the exercises right-handed. Most people used their right hand anyway, and few would suspect he's learned with his left.” [p139 of the 2003 Orbit (UK) edition, Ch.29]
“Alucius kept low in the saddle as he guided his mount towards a slight gap in the oncoming line, aiming at the left side of an eastern trooper. There were definate advantages to being left-handed - provided he took the initiative. His blade slashed across the  first trooper's shoulder as he rode past, but he has to lean and twist to parry a thrust from his right.” [p491 of above, Ch. 99]
“[Captain Gerayn, addressing Alucius:] 'Undercaptain Taniti said that you could use a sabre with either hand.'
'I'm far better with my left,' Alucius demurred.” [p506 of above, Ch. 102]
 (There are also implicit references on pages 80 and 409. Page 120 also has a passage about left and right arms, although I'm unsure if it is significant)
Other passages appear in the two sequels, such as:
“With his right arm still in the splint, while he was left-handed, writing was still slower with only one hand ” [p364 of the 2004 Tor Hardback edition, Ch.97]

Lord Robert "Robin" Andreville - Petals in the Storm (Second book of Fallen Angels series)- Mary Jo Putney
Lord Robert Andreville (Robin) who is the hero of Angel Rogue (the fourth Fallen Angel novel) and a pivotal character in Petals in the Storm, where his left-handedness is an important factor.
“…he paced the drawing room, flexing his aching left hand. It had not healed well after the incident when an unpleasant gentleman had carefully broken the bones one by one. A pity that Robin was left-handed.” [from the prologue of an unspecified edition of Angel Rogue]
“"A determined gentleman wanted me to write a letter that would endanger a friend of mine. After the fellow had broken several bones, I mentioned that I was left-handed and couldn't possibly write anything."” [from an unspecified edition of Angel Rogue]
(due to mcormack44)

Fenella Brown - Memoirs of a Dangerous Alien - Maggie Prince
“‘Oh Dominic, I do hope you’re not going to sulk,’ she continued. While she was speaking she picked up a pen with her left hand – I had never noticed she was left-handed before – leaned over and wrote something on a piece of scrap paper that was lying on my desk.” [p60 of UK Dolphin/Orion 1994 edition, Ch.11]
In the preceding paragraph she is projecting a hologram onto her right palm, so I suspect the left-handedness is a ploy to retain sense in the passage, rather than a premeditated wish to make her left-handed.
On the cover of my copy a right hand with the black star hologram is shown, but on the cover of the sequel (Pulling the Plug on the Universe) a left hand bearing the hologram is shown.
[NB: In the sequel, she is referred to at least once as Fenella Summerling - Brown may be an assumed name - check]

Eric 'Cat' Chant - Charmed Life - Diana Wynne Jones
Is repeatedly noted as left-handed. Is unable to do magic with right hand.
“…They sent him and Gwendolen to the best school in Wolvercote.
Cat was happy there. The only draw back was that cat was left-handed, and schoolmasters always punished him if they caught him writing with his left hand. But they did that at all the schools Cat had been to, and he was used to it” [p15 of 2000 Collins edition, Ch1]
“Cat looked at Mr Saunders fairly often, to see whether it was safe to change his pen from his right to his left hand. He had been punished so often for writing left-handed that he was good at keeping an eye on his teachers. when Mt Saunders turned his way, Cat used his right hand. It was slow and reluctant. But as soon as Mr Saunders turned away again, Cat changed his pen over and got on like a house on fire. The main trouble was that, in order not to smudge the ink with his left hand, he had to hold the paper sideways. But he was pretty deft at flicking his book straight whenever Mr Saunders seemed likely to look at him.” [p56 as above, Ch.4]
“Cat was suddenly very pleased with his newfound talent. He took the handcuffs in two (sic) and told them to be ferocious eagles. "Get after the Nostrums," he said. The left handcuff took off savagely as told, but the right half was still a silver handcuff and it fell on the grass. Cat had to pick it up in his left hand before it would do as it was told.” [p234 as above, Ch.16]
After the second quoted passage, Cat gets into trouble for doing this, and is told to write left-handed at all times.

James (Jamie) Alexander Malcom MacKenzie Fraser - Outlander series - Diana Gabaldon
Left-handed, but has ambidextrous capability. One of the more actively left-handed characters - the left-handedness is worked in all the way through, not just as a deus ex machina to keep him competent when his right hand is pulped by Black Jack Randall (right near the end of the book)
“"I didn't know you were a lefty."
"A lefty? Oh, cack-handed ye mean. Aye, always have been. The schoolmaster used to tie that one to my belt behind my back, to make me write wi' the other."
"Can you? Write with the other, I mean?"
[Jamie] nodded, reapplying the injured hand to his mouth "Aye. Makes my head ache to do it though."
"Do you fight left-handed too?" [Claire] asked, wanting to distract him. "With a sword, I mean?" He was wearing no arms at the moment except his dirk and _skein dhu_, but during the day he customarily wore both swords and pistols, as did most of the men in the party.
"No, I use a sword well enough in either hand. a left-handed swordsman's at a disadvantage, ye ken, wi' a broadsword, for you fight with your left side turned to the enemy, and your heart's on that side, d'ye see?"” [p299 of the 1991 Arrow edition of Cross Stitch (UK title for Outlander), Ch.11]
“I had seen Jamie use it [his claymore] in playful practice, first right-handed with one of the men-at-arms, later left-handed with Dougal. He was a glory to watch under those conditions…” [p346, as above, Ch.18]
“Jamie and Dougal were at the centre of it, fighting back to back. Each of them held his broadsword in the left hand, dirk in the right, and both of them were putting the arms to good use” [p348, as above, Ch.18] [don't complain to me about contradictory quotes y'hear]
“"Well, [the schoolmaster] had me up one day - I got it a lot because I couldna write properly with my right hand, kept doing it with my left. …” [p410, as above, Ch.22]
“[Black Jack Randall] tenderly fingered his throat, where a darkening bruise showed in the open neck of his shirt. "[Fraser] tried to kill me, one-handed, when I untied him. And damned near managed it too. Pity I didn't realize he was left-handed."
"How unreasonable of him," I said.
"Quite," said Randall, with a nod.” [p726, as above, Ch.35]
“A left-handed man forced as a boy to write right-handed, [Jamie] always found letters difficult, but he seldom made such a fuss…” [p147 of the 1993 Dell edition of Dragonfly in Amber, Ch.?]
“…given it to [Jamie] at seventeen, seen him schooled in its use, taught him the tricks and the strengths of a left-handed swordsman, using that sword. Dougal had made him practice, left hand against left hand, for hours on end…” [p372, as above]
See also Dougal MacKenzie
(due to Eoghanán, especial thanks to laurie)

Lisa Johansen - Fever - Elizabeth Lowell
Lisa Johansen is the child of anthropologists and was raised among the most backward people in the modern world. She is unworldly, beautiful, a hard-worker, thrifty, not truly interested in money, and compassionate. In other words a romance heroine. She gets her man. Her left-handedness is not at all related to her character.
“On the plus side, however, it was not considered a sign of demonic possession in this culture [the USA] to eat with the left hand. That was quite a relief to Lisa because she was naturally left-handed.” [no specific cite, but the book was ]first published 1988
(due to mccormack44)

Wilhelm Meister - Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (“Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre”) - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
At a crucial moment in the story, as Wilhelm is sitting with a young woman, we read, “I was… directed to hold out the little finger of my right hand: she placed her own against it; then with her left hand, she quite softly pulled the ring from her finger, and let it run along mine” - where it became irretrievably stuck. Wilhelm had to remove the ring from his right hand, and that was made much easier, because, “By good luck, I was left-handed, as indeed, throughout my whole life, I had never done aught in the right-handed way.” [this quoting Left Hand, Right Hand]
(the above passage adapted from Chris McManus)
I have been unable reduce this to a primary source (The online copies I can find do not respond to searches) - While McManus states that the edition he quotes is the Carlyle translation, none of the online copies seem to contain this text.

Cyrus Nygerski - Tartabull's Throw (Third book in the Moondog Series)- Henry Garfield
From Amazon: “… as any story about a left-handed second baseman must be … ”
A baseball novel.  With werewolves and time-travel.  Strange!
“Right field, where as a lefty Nygerski would naturally hit the ball ended over the horizon at an auto graveyard in Illinois.” [p5 of the 2001 Simon and Schuster hardcover edition, Ch.1 - taken from the amazon.com excerpt]
(due to clong)

 ?Presumably ‘Pip’? - 'Pip': A Romance of Youth -  Ian Hay (pseudonym of John Hay Beith)
“[his left hand] … was constantly usurping the duties and privileges of its fellow, such as cleaning his teeth, shaking hands, and blowing his nose: - literal acts of _gaucherie_” [this quoting Left Hand, Right Hand]
“At the next hole Pip sliced his drive, the ball flying an immense distance and curling away out of sight to their left. (You must remember that he was a left-handed player)” [this quoting Left Hand, Right Hand’s hypernotes]
(Chris McManus, partially quoting Michael Barsley)
I've devoted a great deal of effort into tracking down a copy of this book, but to no avail, so I'm unable to provide primary source quotes.

Nick Rachmaninoff, Detective - The Left-Handed Policeman / Nostalgia Kills / Lady Left (The Left-Handed Policeman Mysteries) - Robert Westbrook
[no quote currently available]
(due to clong)

Gregorio Rivas - Dinner at Deviant's Palace - Tim Powers
It mentions in the first chapter that his left hand is his knife hand. Also, he's a musician.
[no quote currently available]
(due to jweb)

Con Somerford, Viscount Amleigh, and temporarily Earl of Wyvern - The Dragon's Bride - Jo Beverley
The left-handedness is not important as far as the main plot is concerned, but adds depth to the story (cf. real life Ferniehirst Castle, Kerr family). Note that the Somerford family has a history of madness.
“Dammit. Which way did he go in this crazy place? It was full of staircases, he remembered. Circular ones at the comers. A straight one down into the hall. Servants' narrow stairs. Right or left, he'd come to a circular one. Left, why not? He was left-handed. He found the arch and headed down, remembering that his left-handedness gave him an advantage here. In castles, these staircases always curled counterclockwise so that defenders from above would have their right arm - their sword arm - free, while attackers from below would be cramped by the inner wall. The Crag Wyvern stairs curled clockwise because left-handedness ran in the blood of the Devonish Somerfords. The old earl had been left-handed, and apparently so had most before him. Con was left-handed. Was that a bad omen? He could feel the pressure of madness in the very walls of this place. He certainly wished he had a lamp or lantern rather than than the candle he was holding in his right hand, instinctively leaving his left hand free, even though he carried no weapon. He wished he had a weapon, but the greatest danger he faced was that the wildly flaring candle might blow out, leaving him to feel his way down the stairs in the pitch dark.” [From the Amazon.com concordance to the 2001 Signet edition, p31 and 32]
“These particular stairs had been made with true medieval narrowness , and were tricky, especially with the candles in her right hand. She transferred them to the left, then held her skirts up with her right. Someone touched her arm, and she started. It was Con. She'd known it was Con. She'd known his touch, like ice, like fire. He took the candles from her and stepped in front. "I'm sure it's the noble hero's part to lead the way down stairs like this, and after all, I am suitably left-handed. Race, I trust you to fight off any demons or dragons that attack us from behind." She entered the downward spiral, therefore, between the two men, encased in their fragile bubble of light and protection. She was truly relieved to have one hand free to trace the wall as they went. She didn't like these tight stairs. She always felt trapped, as if the air would go.” [pages 221 and 222, as above]
(due to mcormack44)

Adam Richard Tompkins ('Art') - Mightier Than the Sword - Clare Bevan
Is left-handed, and has a terrible time writing neatly, and is given a left-handed pen to write with. The book is tied in closely with the Arthurian legend cycle, and appropriately enough, the pen has 'Excalibur' engraved upon it.
“I took the pen from him and settled it into my left hand. It was warm from use and pleasantly rounded.” [p22 of the 1991 Puffin edition, Ch.1]
“I was trying to remember all the tips Mr Milner had taught me over the last few weeks. Relax. Set the page at an angle so you can see what you are doing. Don't grip too hard. Press as you make the downward stroke, then let the nib slide smoothly upwards again” [p22 as above, Ch.1] [This passage suggests to me that the author actually knows something about writing left-handedly.]
“'This is a rather special pen. Quite old, and some what unusual. It's not like your modern pens. Nasty, mass-produced rubbish. This was made by craftsmen, and designed for left-handed people. It's been in my family for many years, but I've never used it myself because I'm right-handed.'” [p23 as above, Ch.1]
See also Dr Derek More

Caroline Trent - To Catch an Heiress - Julia Quinn
"Her left-handedness is a useful, albeit minor, plot gimmick".
“… Her right temple itched, and she brought up her hand to scratch it. Her right hand. That was when it came to her. She had always favored her left hand. Her early teachers had scolded, screamed, and prodded, trying to get her to learn to write with her right hand. They'd called her bizarre, unnatural, and ungodly. One particularly religious tutor had even referred to her as the spawn of the devil. Caroline had tried to learn how to write with her right hand - oh Lord, how she had tried - but though she could grip the quill in a natural fashion, she'd never been able to master anything other than an unintelligible scrawl. But everyone else wrote with their right hand, her teachers had insisted. Surely she didn't want to be different.
[para?] Caroline coughed to cover up her smile. Never before had she been more delighted to be "different." This fellow would expect her to write with her right hand, as he and the rest of his acquaintances undoubtedly did. Well, she'd be happy to give him what he wanted. She reached out with her right hand, out with her right hand, picked up a quill, dipped it in the ink, and looked at him with bored expectation. "I'm glad you've decided to cooperate," he said. "I'm sure you'll find it most beneficial to your health." She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Now then," he said, staring at her with shrewd intensity. "Do you know Oliver Prewitt?" There was no use denying that one. He'd seen her leaving the house just…” [From the Amazon.com concordance, p42 and 43]
“Blake noted grimly that when she used her left hand to write, her penmanship was exquisite.” [page 73, as above]
(due to mcormack44)

Nathaniel Whaler – The Ecologic Envoy - L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
Naturally left-handed. Notes that being left-handed is 'another advantage' when in a firefight and has his right arm disabled
“‘‘_Thrummm!_’’
The stunner bolt passed over the Ecolitan’s left shoulder.
Nathaniel dove to the right and into a roll. He came out still running.
His right hand went dead, but that didn’t stop him from firing the dart thrower.
Another advantage to being left-handed, he noted absently as he closed on the Imperial.” [p95 of the (date?) Tor US edition, Ch.17]
(NB: I also have a reference to page 127 but cannot see relevance)

Crime

Dirk Burton - Left Behind (First book in the Left Behind series) - Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins
Murder disguised as suicide (shot in wrong temple/gun in wrong hand - can't remember which). Dick Burton described as a 'klutz' due to left-handedness.
NOT a good book.
“"I'm going to tell you something, Cameron," Alan said. "I know he was murdered ."
"Well, I'm pretty sure he was, too, because I think I'd have had a clue if he was suicidal."
"They're trying to pin it on his remorse over losing people in the great disappearance, but it won't wash. He didn't lose anybody close as far as I know."
"But you know he was murdered? Pretty strong words for an investigator."
"I know because I knew him, not because I'm an investigator."
"That won't hold up," Buck said. "I can also say I knew him and that he couldn't have committed suicide, but I'm prejudiced."
"Cameron, this is so simple it would be a cliché if Dick wasn't our friend. What did we always kid him about?"
"Lots of things. Why?"
"We kidded him about being such a klutz."
"Yeah. So?"
"If he was with us right now, where would he be sitting?"
It suddenly dawned on Buck what Alan was driving at. "He would be sitting to one of our lefts, and he was such a klutz because he was left-handed."
"He was shot through the right temple and the so-called suicide weapon was found in his right hand."
"So what did your bosses say when you told them he was left-handed and that this had to be murder?"
"You're the first person I've told."” [From various sources - the amazon.com concordance and a (pirated?) eBook. Amazon's pages 201, 202 of the 2001 Tyndale house edition, Ch.10]

Q. Cornelius Gracilis - The Silver Pigs - Lindsay Davis
A left-hander who 'suicides', but wields the sword in his right hand. (This particular bloke is a baddy, but there is no association with left-handedness - I think the whole thing is borrowed from Agatha Christie )
“Cornelius Gracilis asked for an interview with the Emperor, though his servants found him stretched out stiff with a sword in his right hand (he was left-handed) before he could attend; suicide – apparently.” [p240 of Arrow 2000 edition, Ch.50]

Walter Protheroe - Poirot's Early Cases (The Market Basing Mystery) - Agatha Christie
Plot hinges on disguising a suicide as a murder, but Poirot discovers evidence the suicide/victim was left-handed, and shot in LEFT temple.
“‘H’m!’ said Japp. ‘Bullet entered the head behind the left ear.’
‘Exactly,’ said the doctor. ‘Clearly impossible for him to have fired it himself. He’d have had to twist his hand right round his head. It couldn’t have been done.’”  [p193 of 9^th impression - 1989, Fontana UK edition]
“‘He shot himself. Do you remember he carried his handkerchief in his _right_ sleeve? That showed me he was left-handed. Fearing exposure, after his stormy interview with Mr Parker, he shot himself. In the morning Miss Clegg came in to call him as usual … She alone knew he was left-handed. She changed the pistol to his right hand, closed and bolted the window …’” [p198 as above]

John Turner - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (The Boscombe Valley Mystery) - Arthur Conan Doyle
A left-handed murderer. The left-handedness has no plot significance except to show off Holmes' detective skills.
“In the surgeon's deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from behind..” [Project Gutenberg etext no. 1661]
“"But his left-handedness."
"You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can that be unless it were by a left-handed man? …"” [Project Gutenberg etext no. 1661]
(original reference due to Chris McManus)
See also the entry for Grant Munro.

Robert Duckworth (né Dart) - Hangman's Holiday (The Image in the Mirror)- Dorothy L Sayers
An originally left-handed character with situs inversus. He is accused of murder, and the plot makes great use of reversed photographs, mirrors and facial asymmetries. The solution is that the victim has an evil twin brother who was separated from him at birth, and it was the evil twin who commited the various crimes.
“Wimsey extended his cigarette case. The little man made an instinctive motion towards it with his left hand and then seemed to check himself and reached his right hand across.
'There, you see. I'm always left-handed when I don't think about it. Same as this Plattner. I fight against it, but it doesn't seem any use. But I wouldn't mind that - It's a small thing and plenty of people are left-handed and think nothing of it. …'”
[The Plattner in question is the Plattner of H. G. Well's The Plattner Experiment (sic), which was discussed a few paragraphs before. my research leads me to beive the actual title is 'The Plattner Story']
[p4 of 2003 New English Library (Hodder) edition]
“[Wimsey:]‘ … Were you left-handed as a child?’
‘[Duckworthy:] Well, yes, I was at first. But mother broke me of it.’”
[p19 as above]
Also of interest is:
“'I’ve got my heart on the right side… My liver’s got round the wrong side, too, and my organs. I've had a doctor see it, and he told me I was all reversed. I’ve got my appendix on my left side – that is, I had till they took it away. If we were private, now, I could show you the scar. It was a great surprise to the surgeon when they told him about me. He said afterwards it made it quite awkward for him, coming left-handed to the operation, as you might say.'”
[p5 as above]
This is explained by:
“‘Dissimilar twins and some kinds of similar twins may both be quite normal. But the kind of similar twin that result from the splitting of a single cell _may_ come out as looking glass twins. It depends on the line of fission in the original cell. You can do it artificially with tadpoles and a bit of horsehair.’”
[the tadpole and horsehair bit was, as I remember, a real experiment. See Right Hand, Left Hand, and the link below.]
(due to Chris McManus, from the post publication notes of Right Hand, Left Hand.)

Unoure - Inversions - Iain M. Banks
An unfortunate minor character who is assistant to Nolieti (Chief Torturer for one of the kings). When Nolieti is murdered and Unoure is set-up to take the fall for it, the Doctor correctly concludes that Unoure couldn't have done it (since his left-handedness is inconsistent with the forensic evidence), but Unoure is arrested anyway, and "commits suicide" in his cell (in a way that only an idiot could conclude was suicide, but that is the official verdict).
My feeling that this particular sinistral is a particularly feeble plot gimmick used to support the forensic evidence that Unoure could not have been the murderer of Nolieti.  The Doctor only came into contact with Unoure once in the narrative (and it was implicit that it was a first meeting), and nowhere in that section of the text was any indication that Unoure was left-handed. It is implausible that the Doctor could have learnt the handness of Unoure during that encounter, as she was blindfolded for most of it, and Unoure neither wrote or used manual tools in the rest of the encounter.
'“The wound was caused by a serrated instrument, probably a large knife, … There was a single cut, from left to right,' the Doctor said, teasing apart the flaps of skin near the corpse's left ear. … 'It severed all the major blood vessels, [and] the larynx … [b]ut if we look deeper,' …
I took hold of Nolieti's sparse brown hair and looked away as I pulled on it.
'Looking deeper,' the Doctor repeated, seemingly quite unaffected as she bent close over the tangle of multi-coloured tissues and tubes that had been Nolieti's throat, "we can see that the murder weapon cut so deep it nicked the victim's upper spinal column, here, at the third cervical vertebra." Doctor Skelim snorted derisively again, but from the corner of my eye I saw him leaning closer to the opened wound. …  I felt my own bile rising and tried to swallow it back.
'Here. Do you see? Lodged in the cartilage of the voice box. A splinter of the vertebra, deposited there as the weapon was withdrawn.'
'Very interesting, I'm sure,' Polchiek said. 'What is your point?'
'The direction of the cut would indicate the murderer was right-handed. Almost certainly the right hand was used, in any event. The depth and penetration points to a person of considerable strength, and incidentally reinforces the likelihood that the murderer was using his favoured hand, for people are rarely able to apply so much power so accurately and so certainly with their non-favoured hand. Also the angle of the cut - the way the wound slopes upward relative to the victim's throat - implies that the murderer was a good head or so taller than the victim.'
'Oh, Providence!' Doctor Skelim said loudly. 'Why not rip out his innards and read them like the priests of old to find the murderer's name? I guarantee they will say "Unoure" in any event, or whatever his name is.'
Doctor Vosill turned to Skelim. 'Don't you see? Unoure is shorter than Nolieti, and left-handed. I imagine he is of average strength, perhaps a little more, but he does not have the look of a particularly powerful man.'” [pp189-190 of the 1999 Orbit edition, Ch.11]
Note that large chunks of the text (consisting of plot-relevant byplay) were excised from this quote to bring it down to a manageable and coherent size
(due to clong)

 

 Adjuncts

Lord Kennard Alton - The Heritage of Hastur (Darkover series) - Marion Zimmer Bradley.
After falling down stairs and injuring himself, he gives a list of names to his son to sort out. The son notes that one of the names has been added - and that he must have done it right-handed, because of his injuries.
[no quote currently available]
(due to Lesley Arrowsmith)

Albertus  - King Javan's Year (Second book of The Heirs of St Camber) - Katherine Kurtz
The head of the knights of the Custodes Fides Dei (the not-very-nice replacement to the Michaelines). Javan notices that his sword is slung on his right (e.g where it can be drawn left-handed) when he opens the first Council meeting of Javan's reign.
The left-handedness has nothing to do with his nastiness as a character.
[no quote currently available]
(due to Lesley Arrowsmith)

Chris Donatti, Hitman - Stone Kiss - Faye Kellerman
During a fight, the main character gets in a fight, and remembers that Chris is left-handed, before getting decked (this suggests that handness has come up before in this series? - Further work could be done here)
While Chris Donatti is not a 'nice' person I don’t think there is a connection with handness.
 “He touched Donatti’s shoulder. He should have known better. Even so, he would have successfully evaded the blow.
Except he had forgotten that Chris was left-handed.” [p247 of US Warner Books 2003 edition Ch.21]

Alain Le Gaucher, Bandit chief - The Virgin in the Ice (Sixth Cadfael novel) - Ellis Peters
A quite unreformably evil person.  The left-handedness may be associated (considering the middle ages/monastic setting), but no explicit statement. 
Apart from in the name the left-handedness comes up only once, and is not even touched upon in the climatic fight scene (which suggests the left-handedness was just a ploy to make the character stand out a bit more to the reader – like an unusual hair colour or other physical feature).
“This one served in France for some years, for Normandy against Anjou. They call him Alain le Gaucher, because he’s left-handed.’
Even those who had seen the man now for the first time needed no reminders. It was the left hand that had held the dagger against the boy’s throat, and turned the point quite coldly to pierce the skin” [p152 of 1988 Futura edition. Ch.11]
As an aside, as far as I can tell this doesn't appear in the screenplay, although the character is still called Le Gaucher - However, I have yet to see it.

Lady Madelaine, abbess of St Hawisia's - The Demon Archer (Eleventh Hugh Corbett novel) - Paul Doherty
The villain of the piece (you WERE warned about spoilers)
"All good archers are right-handed. You know that. A left-handed archer is always clumsy. Remember poor Maltote? He couldn't pick a bow up without hurting himself. When we were in the priory I noticed Lady Madelaine was left-handed, the way she held a quill."” [From The Demon Archer]
See also the entry for Maltote
(due to Lesley Arrowsmith)

Dougal MacKenzie - Outlander series - Diana Gabaldon
Jamie Fraser's  maternal uncle, and trainer in left-handed swordfighting.
“"You're awfully good," [Claire] said, with sincerity. "Who taught you to fight? … I'd think you'd need another left-handed fighter to show you."
"Aye, it was a left-handed fighter. The best I've ever seen." [Jamie] smiled briefly, without humor. "Dougal MacKenzie"” [p230of the 1991 Arrow edition of Cross Stitch (UK title for Outlander), Ch.11]
“Both gifted swordsmen, and both left-handed, [Dougal and Jamie] were putting on a skilled display -- a show made more impressive by the fact that they were fighting in accordance with the most exacting rules of French dueling, but using neither the rapier-like smallsword that formed part of a gentleman’s costume, nor the saber of a soldier. Instead, both men wielded Highland broadswords, each a full yard of tempered steel…” [p687 of the 1993 Dell edition of Dragonfly in Amber, Ch.?]
See also the entry for Jamie Fraser
(due to laurie)

Maltote, Stablehand - The Devil's Hunt (Tenth Hugh Corbett novel) - Paul Doherty
Is murdered in the Devil's Hunt.
“"All good archers are right-handed. You know that. A left-handed archer is always clumsy. Remember poor Maltote? He couldn't pick a bow up without hurting himself. When we were in the priory I noticed Lady Madelaine was left-handed, the way she held a quill."” [From The Demon Archer]
See also the entry for Lady Madelaine
(due to Lesley Arrowsmith)

Leonard of Quirm – The Last Hero - Terry Pratchett
Left-handedness is noted (almost) explicitly in an ‘Editor’s note’ in The Last Hero, accompanying an illustration. Leonard of Quirm is left-hander due to association with Leonardo da Vinci in the real world.
“Editor’s Note: Just like Leonardo da Vinci, Leonard of Quirm famously wrote backwards, a talent not unusual in left-handed people. Sadly, but for the purpose of clarity and the continued sanity of our readers, we have been forced to print the handwriting the wrong way round.” [p94 of the 2001 (non-deluxe) Hardback Gollancz edition.]
Leonard himself reversed important words in his texts (such as ‘abort’) to make them readable – which were counter-reversed, so one of the inscriptions in the diagram to which the editor’s note is appended reads ‘troba’

Dr. Derek More - Mightier Than the Sword - Clare Bevan
The 'baddy' in the story, who turns out not to be so bad after all.
“'Quite right,' said Doctor More, 'Well done. looks as if I lost that game as well.' He produced his pen, and it was then that I realised that he was left handed (sic).
'Wait a minute,' I said. 'Borrow my pen. It's really good. You'll like it.'” [p118 of the 1991 Puffin edition, Ch.7]
See also the entry for Adam Tompkins.

Rigneligo, Envoy/Regent from Hamor - The Death of Chaos - L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
Is described as having a scabbard on the right side, to be drawn from left-handed. Later is described as having a holster on right side. Not a 'nice' person, but this is not an outgrowth of his left-handedness
“The man in the tan uniform bows and remains standing before the curved black wood. His wide brown leather belt bears only a short blade on the left, a small purse, and a lighter-colored patch of leather on the right, where a scabbard would rest for a cross-drawn left-handed blade.” [p252 of the 2002 UK Orbit edition, Ch.44]
“His wide brown leather belt bears only a short blade on the left, a small purse, and, on the right, a heavy short pistol in a leather holster that matches the belt perfectly” [p397 as above, Ch. 70]
I suspect the similarities of the passages is to highlight the different levels of technology (assumption of a sword by the inhabitants of Recluce, against the reality of Hamorian firearms) – which is important in the book, although irrelevant to the left-handedness issue under consideration.

Right-handers forced into left-handedness by maiming/natural disability

Drem - Warrior Scarlet - Rosemary Sutcliff
Has a withered right (spear) arm, and the story is about whether he will be able to kill a wolf and therefore become a full adult member of the tribe. Set in the Bronze Age.
 “And crouching there among the timbers that upheld the floor, he looked at his right arm, as though he had never seen it before: his spear arm that he could not use, the Grandfather had said. It was thinner than his left, and some how brittle looking, as though it might snap like a dry stick” [p21 of 1976(?) Puffin edition, Ch.1]
“All that day they followed the ancient green ridgeway along the High Chalk, with their faces towards Sunset, the Wild falling away below them on the Sword side; and on the Shield side, wherever the long upland ridges fell back, the far off shining of the Great Water - only for Drem it was the other way round, because he used sword and spear left handed (sic), and carried his shield, when he must carry one for appearance, on a harness over his right shoulder; so when anyone said 'Shield side' or 'Sword side' he had to turn the things round in his mind” [p107 as above, Ch.7]
(due to Lesley Arrowsmith) 

Maedhros - Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkein
Morgoth captured him and hung him by the wrist from the heights of Thangorodrim. Fingon rescued him, at great risk to himself, but Maedhros lost his right hand in their escape.
[no quote currently available]
(due to Brad)

Relyn - Fall of Angels - L.E. Modesitt Jr.
becomes left-handed after he gets his hand lopped off.
[no quote currently available]
(due to torybear)

Mistress Veltis, a Mortician of the Necropolis of Litharge - World's End (Seventh book in the Sandman series)- Neil Gaiman
She was, I think, a natural right-hander (very strongly implied), but had her right hand withered when still an apprentice (more detail on that would spoil a lot of the plot). Most of her life she did her work left-handed - she was good too. Just before her death she got her hand restored.
Several pages before was a mention of a left-handed coffin (a trick used on apprentices - like a tin of nail holes, or tartan paint)
[no quote currently available]

Natural Right-handers who train them selves into functional ambidextrality

Gerswin - Forever Hero - L.E. Modesitt, Jr. 
Gershwin was effectively (NOT naturally) ambidextrous - Note that the character is an immortal superhuman, and this ambidexterity is a minor aspect of his wide range of abilities..
From MY (i.e. Kvetch's) reading (And I looked carefully), he started off right-handed, although I don't think it is explicit either way
[no quote currently available]

Ryba and the Guards of Westwind - Fall of Angels, The Chaos Balance - L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
Ryba (Leader of the guards / Captain of the Winterlance) and the guards of Westwind carried dual short swords, and some of them were proficient in using both simultaneously.
[I need to look which ones up]
[no quote currently available]
(due to jweb)
 

Other

Guardian of the Egg of the Phoenix - Glory Road - Robert A Heinlein
Is fully ambidextrous - and switches mid sword fight from right to left - most disconcerting to a normal righty.
[no quote currently available]
(due to kiltannen)

Slaine, ancient Irish warrior - 2000AD annual 1985 - story: Pat Mills, art: Massimo Belardinelli
Contains a character called Slaine, an ancient Irish warrior (catchphrase: "Kiss my axe"). In the story in question, his spirit had come forward in time to possess a medieval Irish warrior to beat up the Vikings;
"And then the ancient one, Slaine, appeared - a sword in each hand (for he had equal dexterity with both)…."
(due to Lesley Arrowsmith)

Miss Level - A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett
Rather than being left-handed, she is left-bodied (for strange reasons, she is one person with two bodies).
“"…My right body is slightly clumsier than my left body, but I have better eyesight in my right set of eyes…"” [p83 of the 2004 Doubleday Hardback edition, Ch.3]

Several characters (see below) - The Princess Bride - William Goldman
Both Wesley (AKA the Dread Pirate Roberts) and the Evil Prince Humperdink in The Princess Bride were able to switch hands from right to left in the middle of a sword fight. According to the film, at leat, they were natural righties.
[no quote currently available]
(due to kiltannen, special thanks to mrdude)

Jupiter - The Gold Bug (Short Story) - Edgar Allen Poe
“"Curse your stupidity! do you know your right hand from your left?"
"Yes, I nose dat - nose all bout dat - tis my lef hand what I chops de wood wid."
"To be sure! you are left-handed; and your left. eye is on the same side as your left hand. Now, I suppose, you can find the left eye of the skull, or the place where the left eye has been. Have you found it?"” [Project Gutenberg etext no. 2147]
It turns out that Jupiter doesn't know his left hand for certain - he actually thinks his right eye is his left.  This suggests that he is really right-handed, but the story is of interest none the less for its clear mention of left-handedness.

Kelly Palamino - Sex and Sunsets - Tim Sandlin
From Amazon's scan of the back cover: “Meet Kelly Palamino, a successful dish washer and failed husband described by _People_ as "the lone ranger in love, riding out the rough patches on a Thorazine habit." When Kelly's wife leaves him for his best friend, he becomes color-blind and left-handed, and his toilet starts to speak. … ”
“There were other peculiar changes after Julie left. I became left-handed. I suffer days of color-blindness and lose orientation. I can't remember things like my cat's name or who was the drummer for the Beatles.” [From the Amazon.com concordance to the 1997 Riverhead edition, p2]
From scanning through the hits on a search or 'left hand', it seems that Kelly's new found left-handedness is factored into descriptions.
(due to clong)

Gottfried Plattner - The Plattner Story (Thirty Strange Stories)- H. G. Wells
The plot of the story is that Gottfried Plattner is blown into an alternate fourth dimension, and returns inverted. This means that what he thinks of as his right hand appears to be his left, which makes him seemingly left-handed (to an observer he writes from right to left using his left hand)
“Careful sounding of Gottfried's internal arrangements, by a well-known surgeon, seems to point to the fact that all the other unsymmetrical parts of his body are similarly misplaced. The right lobe of his liver is on the left side, the left on his right; while his lungs, too, are similarly contraposed. What is still more singular, unless Gottfried is a consummate actor, we must believe that his right hand has recently become his left. Since the occurrences we are about to consider (as impartially as possible), he has found the utmost difficulty in writing, except from right to left across the paper with his left hand. He cannot throw with his right hand, he is perplexed at meal times between knife and fork, and his ideas of the rule of the road--he is a cyclist--are still a dangerous confusion. And there is not a scrap of evidence to show that before these occurrences Gottfried was at all left-handed.”
[the preceding paragraph discusses Plattner's heart being on the right]
[taken from http://gaslight.mtroyal.ab.ca/plattner.htm - presumably the 1898 Harper & Brothers edition]
It seems that Dorothy Sayers mistitles this story in her Image in the Mirror - although my online source may be in error, in which case the title of the story is The Plattner Experiment

Ehud the son of Gera - Bible -Judges 3:15
¹⁵But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.
¹⁶But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh.
¹⁷And he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat man.
¹⁸And when he had made an end to offer the present, he sent away the people that bare the present.
¹⁹But he himself turned again from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand unto thee, O king: who said, Keep silence. And all that stood by him went out from him.
²⁰And Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summer parlour, which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out of his seat.
²¹And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly:
²²And the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt came out.
²³Then Ehud went forth through the porch, and shut the doors of the parlour upon him, and locked them.
[King James version, Judges 3:15-23]
(due to Britz)

"Seven hundred chosen men" - Bible - Judges 20:16
¹⁵And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
¹⁶Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.
¹⁷And the men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.
[King James version, Judges 10:15-17]
(due to Britz)

A large proportion of the people of the planet of Widdershins, Dark Side of the Sun, Terry Pratchett
“Now the sinistrals of Widdershins had night-black skin, no body hair, a resistance to skin cancers and UV tolerant eyes. By mere chance, too, half of them were left-handed.” [p85 of the 1990 Corgi edition, Ch.6]
Later on, an aside reference is made to Trivia monarcha sinistrale, the Widdershine ink cowrie [p119, chapter 9, as above].
While the prevalence of left-handed words (Widdershins: counter-clockwise - to the left. A sinistral: a left-hander), this is clearly deliberate, but no specific left-handers are mentioned that I could discover.  I think that this is all window-dressing - skilful, detailed window-dressing, as only pTerry can manage, but window dressing - I doubt if there was any thought about making a character specifically left-handed.

Naga Teot - Teot's War & Bloodstorm - Heather Gladney
"It's impossible to tell if he was originally left-handed and got trained to use both evenly, or whether he's honestly ambi. He's far often inclined to go lefty because it's so disorienting to hostile-minded people with pointed objects." [H G, pers. comm.]


Unconfirmed and doubtful

(Prince) Josua Lackhand - Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy - Tad William
From IMPRESSION reading the series, he was left-handed even before he lost his right hand
[need confirmation]
(due to Aunflin)

Lorn - Magi'i of Cyador (Recluce Series) - L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
Trains self that way? (Fairly sure NOT natural – scenes sparring with Dettaur etc.?))
[needs checking and quotes before advancing to 'trained righties']
[no quote currently available]

Changelings are often depicted in folklore as being sinistral.
[I need example before advancing this to 'other' ]
(due to Brad)
-----------------------------------------------

Title:      Malcolm Sage, Detective
Author:     Herbert Jenkins
eBook No.:  0200921.txt
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200921.txt
lh murderer

Title:      A Silent Witness (1914)
Author:     R. Austin Freeman
eBook No.:  0301591.txt
?
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301591.txt

Title: Four Faultless Felons
Author: G.K. Chesterton
eBook No.:  0300781h.html
?
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300781h.html

Title:      The Chinese Parrot (1926)
Author:     Earl Derr Biggers
eBook No.:  0200681.txt
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200681.txt

Title:      Uncle Abner, Master Of Mysteries
Author:     Melville Davisson Post
eBook No.:  0200911.txt
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200911.txt







Andivius Hedulio, by Edward Lucas White has a number of left-handed characters - this needs a little more work. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/8/5/3/8532/8532-8.txt

The Holiday Round, by A. A. Milne, also - http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/hldrn10.txt


"I am left-handed, which is another unusual thing. My hands have often been noticed. I get them from my mother, who was a Fishbourne, and a lady." - The Autobiography of a Quack. S. Weir Mitchell, MD, LLD - --The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Autobiography of a Quack …  - not sure if this is real or fiction


Micah Clarke, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
fiction?
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/micah10.txt

Through the Wall - Cleveland Moffett
left-handed killer
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/1/3/7/11373/11373.txt


Angels - At the Back of the North Wind - George MacDonald
At the Back of the North Wind is seems to be a fairy tale, but I can't face reading it to find out for sure. At some point, Diamond, the main character meets a number of small boy angels (the girl angels don't appear), who for the sake of randomness, are all left-handed.
“The captain stopped his shovelling, leaned on his spade, rubbed his forehead thoughtfully with his left hand--the little angels were all left-handed--” [Project Gutenberg etext no. 225, Ch. 25]

Jane Foley - The Lion's Share - E(noch) Arnold Bennett
'The most dangerous woman in England', a suffragette. No idea what the story is about. Handness seems to appear here only.
“Jane drew from its concealment in her dress a small piece of iron to which was attached a coloured streamer bearing certain words. She threw, with a strong movement of the left arm, because she was left-handed.” [Project Gutenberg etext no. 14487, Ch. 23]

Lawrence Blakeley - The Man in Lower Ten - Mary Roberts Rinehart
The protagonist, a lawyer.  This story has one of the most complicated sets of red herrings I've ever been confronted with.  The murdered man in the story was killed by a left-hander, and Blakely is mistakenly suspected (due, actually other evidence - the left-handedness is used as the confirming seal to identify the *real* killer)
“McKnight's eyes sought mine and he winked at me solemnly as I unostentatiously transferred the hat I was carrying to my right hand. Long training has largely counterbalanced heredity in my case, but I still pitch ball, play tennis and carve with my left hand.  But Hotchkiss was too busy with his theories to notice me.” [Project Gutenberg etext no. 1869, Ch. 19]
See also the entry for Alice Curtis.

Alice Curtis  - The Man in Lower Ten - Mary Roberts Rinehart
A left-handed killer (left-handedness provides the final confirmatory point)
“"Mr. Sullivan," he asked suddenly, "was your sister [Alice Curtis] left-handed?"
"Yes."” [Project Gutenberg etext no. 1869, Ch. 31]
See also the entry for Lawrence Blakeley.

Hermione Roddice - Women in Love - D(avid) H(erbert) Lawrence
Realised *again* she was left-handed? Quite frankly, I'm not sure what is with this passage.  I've tried reading through more of the text, but I find Lawrence difficult.  Any pointers appreciated.
“She was not swift, she could only move slowly. A strong spirit in him woke him and made him lift his face and twist to look at her. Her arm was raised, the hand clasping the ball of lapis lazuli. It was her left hand, he realised again with horror that she was left-handed. Hurriedly, with a burrowing motion, he covered his head under the thick volume of Thucydides, and the blow came down, almost breaking his neck, and shattering his heart.” [Project Gutenberg etext no. 4240, Ch. 8]

Daniel Hardiman - The Strange Case Of Daniel Hardiman (The Master Detective) - Percy James Brebner
A right-handed explorer who was captured by Patagonian savages.  He managed to convince them he was an avatar of their god, but was driven insane by what he saw.  The god (see entry) was portrayed as left-handed, so he drove himself to build the power of his left hand until he could kill himself.
“Mr. Hardiman could never cut the nails on his right hand. He was very helpless with his left hand in things like that, always was. On this particular day he said his hand was growing stronger, and declared it all was because of will-power.” [Project Gutenberg etext no. 9796 , Ch. 11]
“We know from Bennett that he [Hardiman] believed his left hand was becoming stronger, and I believe his madness compelled him to practise his left hand until it became strong enough to grasp the knife firmly and strike the blow. Since the god was left-handed, his priests were probably so too, and the victims would be slain with the left hand. There was some religious significance attached to the fact, no doubt, and Hardiman's madness would compel him to be exact."” [as above, Ch. 11]

Unnamed Patagonian God (and it's priests) - The Strange Case Of Daniel Hardiman (The Master Detective) - Percy James Brebner
A left-handed death god. See also the entry for Daniel Hardiman
“Think of Bennett's description of that Patagonian temple, Wigan. Those savages were persuaded that Hardiman was a god; possibly human sacrifices were offered to him, and he dared not interfere. That was sufficient to start a man on the road to madness. That wooden god he brought home tells us something. It was the left arm which was stretched out, and in the closed fist was a hole into which a knife had been fixed, a symbol of vengeance and sacrifice, …  Since the god was left-handed, his priests were probably so too, and the victims would be slain with the left hand. There was some religious significance attached to the fact, no doubt, and Hardiman's madness would compel him to be exact."” [Project Gutenberg etext no. 9796 , Ch. 11]

Mr. Majendie - The Strange Case Of Daniel Hardiman (The Master Detective) - Percy James Brebner
A businessman, whose left-handedness is a red herring in the mystery. See the other characters in the story: A god and Daniel Hardiman.
“"We will go on considering Majendie," said Quarles. "Now, when he took up the knife and imitated my action of stabbing the air with it I made a discovery. He did so with his left hand. Since my first mental note concerned a left-handed man the coincidence is surprising.” [Project Gutenberg etext no. 9796 , Ch. 11]

Verner Lablache - The Story of the Foss River Ranch - Ridgwell Cullum
The local usurer, and general bad egg.  From what I can tell, he is the official villain.
“Now it was Lablache's deal. "Lord" Bill concentrated his attention upon the dealer. The money-lender was left-handed. He held the pack in his right, and, in dealing, he was slow and slightly clumsy. The object of Bunning-Ford's attention quickly became apparent. Each card as it left the pack was passed over the burnished silver of the dealer's memorandum pad. It was smartly done, and Lablache was assisted by the fact that the piece of metal was inclined towards him. There was no necessity to look down deliberately to see the reflection of each card as it passed on its way to its recipient, a glance--just the glance necessary when dealing cards--and the money-lender, by a slight effort of memory, knew every hand that was out. Lablache was cheating.” [Project Gutenberg etext no. 14482, Ch. 6]

Harry Lossing - Stories of a Western Town - Octave Thanet (pseudonym of Alice French)
The left-handedness makes Harry prone to confusing left and right, so in church he makes an offering, taking bank notes from the wrong pocket, and giving up hundreds instead of tens of dollars. Possibly based on a real incident? 
“And he [Thomas] picks up things quickly. Once he came to tea.  It was amusing to see how he glued his eyes on Harry and kept time with his motions.  He used his fork quite properly, only as Harry is a left-handed little fellow, the right-handed Thomas had the more difficulty.” [Project Gutenberg etext no. 2949, Ch. 3]
“I should explain that Harry being a naturally left-handed boy, who has laboriously taught himself the use of his right hand, it is a family joke that he is like the inhabitants of Nineveh, who could not tell their right hand from their left. But Harry himself has always maintained that he can tell as well as the next man.” [as above, Ch. 5]

Percy Thompson - The Sleuth of St. James's Square –M(elville) D(avisson) Post
From what I can tell, Thompson murdered his uncle, for money, and his left-handedness was the clue that caught him out. I have no idea how big a part of the story this is, but I don't think its too massive - there seems to be little character development for Thompson.
“The judge turned to the clerk. "Will you administer the oath to these two persons?" he said.
Thompson rose. His face was disconcerted and slack. He hesitated, but the prosecutor spoke to him. Then he faced the judge and put up his hand. Immediately the girl cried out:
"Look, monsieur," she said. "It is his left hand he is holding up!"
Immediately Thompson raised the other hand. "I beg your pardon, Your Honor," he muttered. "I am left-handed; I sometimes make that mistake."
And again the girl cried out: "You see … you notice it … it is true, then … he is left-handed."
"I see he is left-handed," said the judge, "but what has that to do with the case?"
"Oh, monsieur," she said, "it has everything to do with it, monsieur … will you tell me, is it true that the stab wound which killed Mr. Marsh was in the shoulder on the side next to the wall?" …
"The wound was in the base of the man's neck at the top of the left shoulder on the side next to the wall," he said. "But what has this fact to do with the case?"
"Oh, monsieur," she cried, "it has everything to do with it. If the assassin who slipped along the wall had carried the knife in his right hand, the wound would have been on the right side of the dead man's neck. But if, monsieur, the assassin carried the knife in his left hand, then the wound would be where it is, on the left side. That made me believe, at first, that the assassin had only one arm - had lost his right arm - and must use the other; then, a little later, I understood …. Oh, monsieur, don't you understand; don't you see that the assassin who stabbed Mr. Marsh was left-handed?"
In a moment it was all clear to everybody. Only a left-handed man could have committed the crime, for only a left-handed man standing close against the left side of a room above one sitting at a desk against that wall could have struck straight down into the left shoulder of the murdered man. A right-handed assassin would have struck straight down into the right shoulder, he would not have risked a doubtful blow, delivered awkwardly across his body, into the left shoulder of his victim.” [Project Gutenberg etext no. 2861, Ch. 13]

Ruth Schuyler, AKA Victoria Van Allen - Vicky Van - Carolyn Wells
A sort of mystery story. I need to work on the details, but Ruth-as-Vicky writes left-handed to disguise her handwriting. Ruth/Vicky is a natural right-hander
“"I know it," and Fibsy nodded. "But, Mr. Calhoun, did you know that Miss Van Allen always writes with her left hand?"
"No, and I don't believe she does!"
"Yessir. I went to the bank an' they said so. An' I asked the sewin' woman, an' she said so. An' I asked the caterer people an' they said so. And the inkstand is on the left-hand side of Miss Van Allen's desk."
"All right, then she is left-handed, but that proves nothing!"
"No, sir, Miss Van Allen ain't left-handed. You know she ain't yourself. You'd 'a' noticed it if she had been. But she writes left-handed, 'cause if she didn't she'd write like Mrs. Schuyler!"”[Project Gutenberg etext no. 6159, Ch. 19]

Pat Hobby - Pat Hobby's Secret (The Complete Pat Hobby Stories) - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The below quote seems to be the only appearance, and I've no real idea idea what it's meant to mean. Possibly 'crooked', or 'freelance' or something.
“'Pat Hobby! Sit down and wha'll you have. Genlemen, this is Pat Hobby--best left-handed writer in Hollywood. Pat h'are you?'”  [Project Gutenberg of Australia etext no. 0400821, Ch. 2]

Andrew Garvald - Salute to Adventurers - John Buchan
I'm not really sure what the book is about, but I think the left-handedness is plot gimmick to help Garvald survive fights.
“Three or four times I avoided his rushes, noting with satisfaction that one of the countrymen had got hold of the shrieking Isobel. Then my chance came, for as he lunged I struck from the side with all my force on his jaw. I am left-handed, and the blow was unlocked for. He staggered back a step, and I deftly tripped him up, so that he fell with a crash on the hard floor.”  [Project Gutenberg etext no. 10046, Ch. 3]
“I am left-handed, and so, in fronting my opponent, I exposed my heart. If Grey were the marksman I thought him, now was his chance for revenge”  [as above, Ch. 13].
“I made feeble plucks at the arrow in my right arm, and my shoulder drooped almost to the sod. But all the time my other hand was behind my back, edging its way to the pistol. My fingers clutched at the butt, and slowly I began to withdraw it till I had it safe in the shadow of my pocket.
My enemy did not know that I was left-handed.”  [as above, Ch. 25]

Ojo the (Un)lucky - The Patchwork Girl of Oz - L Frank Baum
A Munchkin boy trying to rescue his Unc Nunkie.  He gives his left-handedness as one of the reasons he is unlucky (along with being born on Friday the thirteenth, and having a wart under his right arm.
“"But," continued Ojo, "I'm left-handed."
"Many of our greatest men are that way," asserted the Emperor. "To be left-handed is usually to be two-handed; the right-handed people are usually one-handed."”  [Project Gutenberg etext no. 955]

Eve - Eve's Diary - Mark Twain (pseudonym for Samuel Clemens)
As in the biblical Eve.  Left-handed is either a direct synonym for clumsy, or it is that association that is intended. However, the illustrations by Lester Ralph that are shown in the Project Gutenberg version show Eve with a staff/spear/pole in the left hand at least once.
“When [the stars] first showed, last night, I tried to knock some down with a pole, but it didn't reach, which astonished me; then I tried clods till I was all tired out, but I never got one. It was because I am left-handed and cannot throw good.”  [Project Gutenberg etext no. 8525]

Alice Ripley - The Daughter of the Chieftain - Edward S. Ellis
Set in pioneer-age America (I think). No idea what the story is about, but I suspect its a bog-standard dime novel. Left-handedness seems to come up just once, and is never mentioned or alluded to again.  It is possible that there is at least some basis in fact.
“Alice was left handed (sic). So when she took position, she leaned over to the right, supporting her body with that arm, while with the other hand she tossed the little jagged pieces of stone aloft, snatching up the others, and letting the one that was going up and down in the air drop into her chubby palm.”  [Project Gutenberg etext no. 7493]

Doddridge "Dodd" Watts Weaver - The Evolution of "Dodd" - William Hawley Smith
The subtitle is 'A Pedagogical Story', and from a glance over the story seems to be the passage of "Dodd" from down right bad child to his upstanding adulthood - or something like that.  Considering the date and the date (1897) and possibly metaphorical nature of the story, "Dodd"'s left-handedness may well be meant to convey the inherent base nature of the boy. As far as I can tell, there is not a single commentary on this book on the 'net, and frankly I can't face reading the PG file, so I am unable to guess further - if anyone out there HAS read it, please tell me about it.
“"Here! you young Benjamite" ("Dodd" was left-handed, and the old gentleman was well posted in Bible lore), "bring back that spigot."”  [Project Gutenberg etext no. 13398]

Scott Saunders - Widow for one Year - John Irving
"The heroine, Ruth Cole, in "Widow for one Year" by John Irving, was raped by a lefthanded and very brutal kind of guy, who hit her after the rape, the relevance being that you don't see it coming if a leftie takes a swing at you. Ruth Cole gets her own back, shortly afterwards, when she beats him with her tennis racket, taking out his knees first and leaves him with a broken collarbone too. The rape and thus this lefthanded character also figures as one of several reasons for her father's suicide."
“Ruth was aware of the greater size and muscularity of his left forearm, even as he held his right hand out to her. "It's Scott, Scott Saunders," he reminded her, shaking her hand. "You're left-handed, aren't you?" Ruth asked him. Her father was a lefty. Ruth didn't like to play left-handers. Her best serve was to the left-hand court; a lefty could return that serve with his forehand. "Got your racquet with you?" Scott Saunders asked her, after admitting he was left-handed.” [From the Amazon.com concordance to the 1999 Ballantine edition, p262]
“"Time to go," Ruth reminded him. She was completely unprepared for him to hit her. With left-handers, there's always something you don't see coming. Scott hit her only once, but it was a solid shot. One second he was holding his left ear with his left hand; then he was out of the bed, facing her. He caught Ruth on her right cheekbone with a straight left that she never saw. As she lay on the rug, approximately where she'd seen Hannah's open suitcase, Ruth realized that Hannah had been right again: Ruth's alleged instincts for detecting a man's capacity for violence against women, even on the very first date, were not the instincts she'd thought she had.” [as above, p296]
“Ruth would have had to have been standing too close to her opponent - crowding him from behind . In such a circumstance, Ruth's imaginary opponent would have to have been a left-hander - in order to hit her in her right eye. (To tell a believable story, the novelist knew, you just have to get the details right.) She could imagine it being funny in the interviews that lay ahead of her: "Traditionally, I've had a hard time with left-handers." Or: "There's always something with lefties that you don't see coming." (For example, they fuck you from behind, after you tell them you don't like it that way, and they slug you when you tell them it's time to leave-or they fuck your best friend.) Ruth felt familiar enough with left-handed behavior to make up a pretty good story.” [as above, p303]
My only contact with the book is Amazon's Concordance, but Ruth (an author) seems pretty down on left-handers after that (no surprise, I suppose), and plans to make one of her own characters (the "bad boyfriend") left-handed -
“"No, stupid - it begins with the bad boyfriend! No doubt I'll make him left-handed. A strawberry-blond boyfriend …"” [as above, p296]
Which makes this putative character my first fictional fictional left-hander
See also the entry for Ted Cole
(due to Amorine)

Ted Cole - Widow for one Year - John Irving
The father of the heroine, Ruth, who strives in everything to outdo his success.
“"What time?" he asked her.
"The usual time-the same time you play with my father."
"I'll see you at five, then," Scott told her.
That would give Ruth the whole day to get ready for him. There were specific shots and serves she liked to practice before she played a left-hander. But her father was the lefty of all lefties; in the past, she had never been able to adequately prepare herself for him. Now she believed that playing Scott Saunders would be the perfect warm-up for playing her father.” [From the Amazon.com concordance to the 1999 Ballantine edition, p272]
See also the entry for Scott Saunders

Grant Munro - The Yellow Face (Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes) - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
As in the Boscombe Valley Mystery,  the left-handedness has no plot significance except to show off Holmes' detective skills.
“"Pipes are occasionally of extraordinary interest," said he [Holmes]. "Nothing has more individuality, save perhaps watches and bootlaces. The indications here, however, are neither very marked nor very important. The owner is obviously a muscular man, left-handed, with an excellent set of teeth, careless in his habits, and with no need to practise economy. … He has been in the habit of lighting his pipe at lamps and gas-jets. You can see that it is quite charred all down one side. Of course a match could not have done that. Why should a man hold a match to the side of his pipe? But you cannot light it at a lamp without getting the bowl charred. And it is all on the right side of the pipe. From that I gather that he is a left-handed man. You hold your own pipe to the lamp, and see how naturally you, being right-handed, hold the left side to the flame. You [Watson] might do it once the other way, but not as a constancy. This has always been held so."” [ellipsis removes Holmes' explanation of his other deductions] [Project Gutenberg etext no. 834]
See also the entry for John Turner

Edith Curtis - The Aluminium Dagger  (John Thorndyke's Cases)  - R(ichard) Austin Freeman
A deductive detective novel, where the forensic evidence seems to incriminate Edith Curtis, but as it turns out, she is completely innocent, and the fact she seems to fit the evidence is wholly coincidental (more detail would wholly spoil the plot). Edith never actually appears 'on stage', as it were, but is only referred to and described by others.
“We stepped across and looked down at the corpse. It was that of a somewhat elderly man, and lay, on an open space of floor before the fireplace, face downwards, with the arms extended. The slender hilt of a dagger projected from the back below the left shoulder, and, with the exception of a trace of blood upon the lips, this was the only indication of the mode of death. A little way from the body a clock-key lay on the carpet, and, glancing up at the clock on the mantelpiece, I perceived that the glass front was open.
 "You see," pursued the inspector, noting my glance, "he was standing in front of the fireplace, winding the clock. Then the murderer stole up behind him--the noise of the turning key must have covered his movements--and stabbed him. And you see, from the position of the dagger on the left side of the back, that the murderer must have been left-handed. That is all clear enough. What is not clear is how he got in, and how he got out again." …
At this moment a hansom drew up outside. A moment later flying footsteps were heard on the stairs. There was a furious battering at the door, and, as Polton threw it open, Mr. Curtis burst wildly into the room.
"Here is a frightful thing, Marchmont!" he gasped. "Edith--my daughter--arrested for the murder. Inspector Badger came to our house and took her. My God! I shall go mad!"
Thorndyke laid his hand on the excited man's shoulder. "Don't distress yourself, Mr. Curtis," said he. "There is no occasion, I assure you. I suppose," he added, "your daughter is left-handed?"
"Yes, she is, by a most disastrous coincidence. But what are we to do? Good God! Dr. Thorndyke, they have taken her to prison--to prison--think of it! My poor Edith!"” [ellipsis removes most of the body of the story - the two sections are several days apart] [Project Gutenberg etext no. 13882]
See also the entry for Reuben Hornby (a left-hander in a different Thorndyke mystery)

Reuben Hornby - The Red Thumb Mark - R(ichard) Austin Freeman
Another Thorndyke mystery, where the (ambidextrous/left-handed) accused has seemingly left a thumbprint at the scene of the crime. The thumbprint is a deliberate fake, with the left thumb being chosen by the real culprit because of the accused's slight preference for the left hand
“"You have known the prisoner several years, I believe?"
"Yes; I have known him all his life. He is my eldest brother's son."
"Then you can tell us, no doubt, whether he is left-handed or right-handed?"
"I should say he was ambidextrous, but he uses his left hand by preference."”  [Project Gutenberg etext no. 11128]
See also the entry for Edith Curtis (a left-hander in a different Thorndyke mystery)

Dalveen Leandor, AKA Nightshade - The Book of Shadows, first book of The Nightshade Chronicles - Stan Nicholls
The hero, goes up against an evil sorcerer at the beginning of the book and loses his swordarm:
"He sank to his knees in unspeakable agony, and watched bewildered as the arm twisted and spasmed.
His clenched fist turned pale. It took on the appearance of crystal.
Then crumbled to dust.
Fine grey ash poured from his silk sleeve as the rest of the limb dissolved and fell away." [? edition]
(due to Lesley Arrowsmith)
This quote awaits confirmation on a point about the original handness of Nightshade.

A number of characters - The Lefthanders (First published in German, as Die Linkshänder) - Günter Grass
This short story  is a satire about a club of - well, lefthanders, obviously - whose goal is to overcome their "disability". There's some political overtones to the story as well as a social commentary.
(due to spiphany)

Ahlrada Ahn - Midnight Tides - Steven Erikson
A Tiste Edur warrior (minor character)
[no quote currently available]
See also the entry for Urudat
(due to clong)

Urudat - Midnight Tides - Steven Erikson
Is mentioned as an historical figure, a left-handed King's Champion of lore
[no quote currently available]
See also the entry for Ahlrada Ahn
(due to clong)

An ambidextrous badass almost-dead warrior character who has been interred (i.e., in the ground) near the Azanth tower and charged with preventing the escape of a group of powerful evil almost-dead Toblokai (I think). - Midnight Tides - Steven Erikson
There are probably enough clues to know what this character's real identity is, but I [clong] am sufficiently confused that I can't say with confidence. [no quote currently available]
(due to clong)

'Bodyguard #2' - Net Force: Breaking Point - Tom Clancy and Steve Piecznick
The guards are not named in that scene - they are very much bit parts. Note the use of 'was dexter' against 'a sinister' - obviously even the pedantic Clancy shied away from 'the man was sinister'. I think that this left-hander is left handed to make the scene logical, and to indulge Clancy's intricate-attention-to-detail style.
“The rest of his [Luther Ventura, assassin turned bodyguard] primary team - two men and two women - were in the coffee shop or covering the street outside. He watched the man and woman pretending to be a married couple stand and walk arm in arm toward the door. Both kept their guns [sic] hands clear - the woman was dexter, the man a sinister, so the man walked on the left, the woman on the right.” [p200 of the 2000 PUBLISHER edition, Ch.?]

Count Dinaos - Winter of the Wolf (also known as The Belly of the Wolf), (Third book in Lens of the World trilogy) - R(oberta) A(nn) MacAvoy
One of the characters is Count Dinaos, a notorious duellist and portrait painter:
“He held the brush in his left hand. I found that interesting; I have often wondered what it would be like to be left-handed.” [no cite]
Later, the hero muses that being left-handed must give Dinaos an advantage when duelling.
(due to Lesley Arrowsmith)

The Undead - Kill the Dead - Tanith Lee
“The dead who lived, like the mirror image, right hand in reverse, tended to attack leftward or sinister. It occured to Dro quite abruptly that the ghost had fastened its teeth and nails into the calf of his left leg, ripping and gnawing at him.” [no cite]
(due to Lesley Arrowsmith)

Murillo - Gardens of the Moon (First book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen) - Steven Erikson
A skilled duellist, who seems to fight with his left hand as the main hand.
“Murillo spun, a long, thin duelling rapier in his left hand rasping from its sheath and sweeping low into guard position, a main-gauche appearing in his right hand as he dropped into a defensive crouch” [p243-244 of the 2000 Bantam Books edition, Ch.7]

Falco, a gladiator - Midnight Falcon - David Gemmell
A minor character whose sole purpose is to be Bane (the protagonist) 's first gladiatorial opponent. The left-handedness is to make him a more dangerous opponent. In the end, Bane adopts the approach of swapping sword hands in the middle of the fight, and making a single unexpected attack.
“"Tell me, what did you notice about your opponent?" …
"He had blue eyes" …
"He was left-handed"” [p189 of the 2000 Corgi edition, Ch.6]
“"There is no point in adopting a fighting pose, Bane," said Rage softly. "You are dead. Left-handers are pure poison. They have a great advantage in that most poeple they fight are right-handed, so they get used to such combat. Wheread their opponents are forced to rethink all their attacking moves"” [p191 of the 2000 Corgi edition, Ch.6]

De'nal - Wit'ch Fire, first book of the Banned and the Banished - James Clemens

In the Octavia Estelle Butler short story Speech Sounds, both the protagonst Rye and a man she meets whom she calls Obsidian are left-handed. In this story mankind has been struck by a disease that destroys our ability to use language, and lefties have proven more resistant to the disease than righties.
------------------------------------------------
“” [pXX of the 19XX PUBLISHER edition, Ch.X]

Books including ‘left hand’ in the title (a minor diversion)

Left Hand of Darkness (U K LeGuin)
The Left-Handed Hummingbird (Kate Orman) – Dr Who
Left Hand of Destiny (Star Trek)
The Hound in the Left Hand Corner (Giles Waterfield)
The Left Hand of the Electron (Isaac Asimov)
Death of a Left-Handed Woman (Cyril A. Joyce)

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This file last modified 15:17 GMT 30/xii/05.  This file first created 29/i/05
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