Famous people's pens

[flighter51]

Bill Clinton also owns a Black Parker Duofold with the emblem for the State of Arkansas on it.

Someone got it as a gift for him at Vanness pen shop. I do not know if he ever wrote with it. Parker got as far as the A's in promoting their limited edition Duofolds for all 50 states. Vanness Pen store in Little Rock carried both the Arkansas Duofold and the later Arkansas mottled hard rubber pen which I believe may have been a Bexley if memory serves. No connection between the Bexley and Clinton, just a cool pen in beautiful mottled rubber.

 

Vanness is an incredible store. If you are in or near Arkansas it is a must visit.

 

Mike has a lot of interesting N.O.S. pens. Email him on Facebook.

 

fern

[WhiskeyMan]

Good topic.

 

I have wanted to know for a long time what pen F. Scott Fitzgerald preferred. I don't know how to find this out, or if anyone knows.

 

~WhiskeyMan

[Pelikan_FP]

I must say, I love this topic. It combines two of my favorite topics together-fountain pens and history! It is a most interesting read.

[DaleR]

So Mark Twain used Conklins and people like Winston Churchill, the Queen, Presidents Clinton & Bush and Rick Wakeman (Yes!) use Conway Stewarts. Anyone else?

 

What about old Hollywood stars like Humphrey Bogart?

Who told you the Queen uses CS? She has been using the same Parker 51 for personal use since 1959. CS keep sending ornate pens to her in hopes that she will use them, so they can get the coat-of-arms on their advertising copy. She is only interested in pens she can use, not overly ornate, display items.

 

You're thinking of the queen's royal warrant. To my knowledge, the warrant-holder of writing-instruments to the royal household is the Parker Pen Company. So yeah, C.S. has certainly lost out there.

Yes, both HM The Queen and Charles Prince of Wales, as an individual, have given Royal Warrants to Parker. I was just being implicitly rude when I used "coat-of-arms", because it implies they are only interested in the decoration. This is my British upbringing, and what passed as understated humour in my formative years.

 

In Shepherd's book, there is a picture of the Queen Mum using a P51, along with several other famous people, including Presidents Truman and Eisenhower.

[Sasha Royale]

Aboard the USS Missouri, Tokyo Harbor, 1945, the instrument of surrender was signed. One written

account tells that General MacArthur signed with multiple pens. The first seven or eight were

black pens, which he distributed to attending witnesses. Last, he took from his pocket, his

wife's red Parker Duofold fountain pen, and finished the signing.

 

There is a photo in the Parker forum. I also read that Mrs MacArthur's Duofold was subsequently

lost, and the Parker Pen Company presented her with a commemorative replacement.

 

Thank you for starting this topic. I have enjoyed reading all of it.

[akrishna59]

So Mark Twain used Conklins and people like Winston Churchill, the Queen, Presidents Clinton & Bush and Rick Wakeman (Yes!) use Conway Stewarts. Anyone else?

 

What about old Hollywood stars like Humphrey Bogart?

Who told you the Queen uses CS? She has been using the same Parker 51 for personal use since 1959. CS keep sending ornate pens to her in hopes that she will use them, so they can get the coat-of-arms on their advertising copy. She is only interested in pens she can use, not overly ornate, display items.

 

excuse me, but is it the same pen since 1959? surely her majesty must have changed her pen in between for new ones, even taking into account the long durability and the service that parker must be providing the palace.

 

if it is the same fp, then her majesty is simply one of the greatest fp lovers of all time, since she seems to use it daily, though most of the parts must have been replaced by now.

 

we must offer her majesty an honorary membership on fpn, with all due respect.

 

rgds.

 

krishna.

[79spitfire]

Lisa Miyako uses a Nakaya..... :ltcapd:

 

I happen to be very fond of a variety of pens...

 

Oh wait,

 

Neil Gaiman was caught using a TWSBI to sign books.

 

The Kennedy and Johnson administrations are associated with Esterbrooks, however I don't know if that was because they had the government contract for pens at the time or if it was a true preference. I read somewhere that Kennedy had a Montblanc, but as others have pointed out, having and using are two different things.

 

The French president Nicolas Sarkozy was caught on film drooling over a Montblanc 149, and ended up asking too keep it! (suppose you can't blame him, I'm impressed that he did ask!)

 

Walt Disney is often seen in pictures with Sheaffer pens. I don't know if this is because they supplied the pens or if he actually enjoyed using them.

 

P.S. If someone has the 'Walt Disney' Sheaffer balance pen kicking around they don't want....

[mdove]

Many years ago, when Parker was still producing pens in the US, I stopped in Janesville to have a Vacumatic repaired. I asked the repairman who the most famous person he had repaired a pen for. He replied he had fixed pens for Presidents, Popes and Queens.

[AKMA]

In this photo, Neil Gaiman is autographing a poster with a Delta Fluida. The TWSBI must have gone dry, or maybe he reserves it for working on his books.

[StephY]

In this photo, Neil Gaiman is autographing a poster with a Delta Fluida. The TWSBI must have gone dry, or maybe he reserves it for working on his books.

 

Interesting! In his tumblr page in March, Neil stated that he won't use the Fluida for signings. Maybe the crack in his Twsbi ROC made him rethink his options.

[Sasha Royale]

I use a Parker 45.

 

:ltcapd:

[Freddy]

Harlan Ellison ... .writer who never met a pen he didn't like...follow the url....

 

http://harlanellison.com/buzz/bw146h.htm

 

 

Fred

[Procyon]

William Holden appeared in an ad for the Parker 61 in 1958. He is shown contemplating the capillary filler as it soaks up ink. He is apparently using some really weak ink, since you can see the pen through the ink in the bottle.

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7077/6925162560_642a199cbd_b.jpg

[kestrel]

Elmer C. Walzer, the first financial editor at United Press International and author of a landmark book on how economies respond in war, used a Parker Senior Duofold in red Permanite with a fine nib. He had his name engraved on it in neat, small, block letters and treated it with care throughout their time together.

[Barry Gabay]

There is a good documentary on the American poet, Allen Ginsberg, which shows him carrying and using a light colored Parker 51. The scene is in black & white, but in a fairly close shot of the poet signing a book, the pen appears to be cocoa or navy gray with lustraloy cap.

[Mags]

This was quite interesting. Curious still about what fountain pen was used by Canadian Prime minister's.

[Mags]

Or I should say which pens were used by Prime Minister's .

[CAG_1787]

I think I remember reading somewhere that former Supreme Court Justice David Souter used fountain pens.

[StephY]

I think I remember reading somewhere that former Supreme Court Justice David Souter used fountain pens.

 

Yes, Esterbrooks, I believe.

[Jerome Tarshis]

I was astonished to read akrishna59's conjecture that if Queen Elizabeth had been using the same Parker 51 since 1959, in his opinion an unlikely thing, it would have had most of its parts replaced. Dear God. I myself wrote with one Parker 51 for 36 years, from 1949 to 1985, when I lost it. During that time I was a student, a statistical clerk, and a writer and editor, and I wrote quite a lot by hand. If I hadn't lost the pen I would expect to be still using it today, 63 years, with probably no need for any parts to be replaced.