Famous people from history and their pens

[penrivers]

Interesting post. And are there any current personalities that are fountain pen aficionados?

 

The August/September 2007 issue of "Stylus Magazine" did an article on David Macaulay and his Lamy Safari fountain pen. He wrote and illustrated his books such as The Way Things Work and Cathedral using his Safari. According to the article, when Lamy heard about his preference for their pen, they made him a special, one-of-a-kind Safari pen, in a particular shade of lime green.

Well, you remaind me coincidentaly of Cathedral by Raymond Carver a short storie about a blind man, by the way does anybody know what kind of writing instrument did he used and what kind of writing instrument actually uses Sam Shepard?.

Greetings from México.

[Tsujigiri]

Interesting post. And are there any current personalities that are fountain pen aficionados?

 

The August/September 2007 issue of "Stylus Magazine" did an article on David Macaulay and his Lamy Safari fountain pen. He wrote and illustrated his books such as The Way Things Work and Cathedral using his Safari. According to the article, when Lamy heard about his preference for their pen, they made him a special, one-of-a-kind Safari pen, in a particular shade of lime green.

 

Kind of admirable, to be able to use a single pen constantly... oh, the discipline.

[LedZepGirl]

I've been trying to figure out what type of pen the man in my avatar used for writing music. Some type of fountain pen I figure, a BP wouldn't work too good I don't think.

[kazoolaw]

I did visit Chartwell, home of Winston Churchill, last year. On the desks and in the display cabinets were several fountain pens that I could not identify. I do not know if they were actually used by the man himself or present to add character but much of the material on display was original.

 

They were black level fillers from what I could see.

 

I did notice a big bottle of Quink red (at least 1 pint) yet most of his letters were in black or dark blue-black ink.

 

Well worth a trip if you are in the area!

 

Chris

 

 

"As a young author he had writen his mother, 'My hand gets so cramped. I am writing every word twice & some parts three times.' Now he seldom puts a word on paper himself--except when affixing his signature, correcting galley proofs, or writing close friends and his immediate family--and he normally uses fountain pens, blue ink for correspondence, red for proofs.

THE LAST LION: WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL; ALONE: 1932-1940 by William Manchester, p. 11.

 

gary

Edited July 30, 2009 by gary

[donwinn]

I've been trying to figure out what type of pen the man in my avatar used for writing music. Some type of fountain pen I figure, a BP wouldn't work too good I don't think.

 

Have you tried emailing Dweezil? He has revived and toured using a lot of his late father's guitars and amps, and has a better than even probability of knowing what his dad used to write music.

 

Donnie

[adichew]

According to a Pelikan staff, Lee Kuan Yew (founding father of S'pore) uses a Pelikan Toledo.

[Donald594]

George Busch used a cross Townsend I believe.

[Artie]

Who is George Busch?

[lapis]

I read somewhere that Thomas Mann used MBs but I can't find the source at the moment.

 

Mike

[Ondina]

The King of Spain uses a Mont Blanc, a Regia and a Cervantes (the brand, not the MB LE).

David Lloyd George signed the Treaty of Versailles with a massive gold Waterman fountain pen given to him by his wife.

Edited to add that Mussolini and the King of Italy signed the resignation of the later also with a fountain pen but I have no idea which one.

http://www.mymilitaria.it/Liste_02/decreto_cavagnari.htm

http://www.mymilitaria.it/Liste_02/images/decreto_cavagnari_2g.jpg

Many historical personalities have used it; http://www.historyinink.com/

Edited July 30, 2009 by Ondina

[RLTodd]

If one is to believe Parkers ads, Sherlock Holmes "father" Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used a black and pearl Duofold DeLuxe for his stories, but the truth is that it was probably a Big Red!

 

/Tony

 

Given that the Duofold came out after 1920, and most of the Holmes stories were published before the First World War (only one after, as I recall -- not a Holmesian, but they were "present day" setting with 1880s and 1890s technology for the most part), I think it pretty unlikely he used a Duofold for any but the very last of his work -- he died in 1930, and was quite ill with heart disease the last year of his life.

 

Had some thoughts since the last time a thread was run on this topic.

 

I believe that was simply a paid endorsement. FAIK, he might have done all his creative writing with a pencil.

 

Which leads me to wonder, why would one assume that authors would have used a pen instead of a pencil? All through school I wrote my drafts with a pencil. I thought most people did.

 

The other idea is that important people seldom do more than sign or jot down notes. They have people who take dictation, or these days, use a recorder.

 

I have also had a nasty thought. "Using the same tools as a great man will not make one a great man."

 

YMMV

[Tsujigiri]

George Busch used a cross Townsend I believe.

 

But it's just a rollerball, not a fountain pen. They had a special white house edition of it made.

[stevensteven]

Aleister Crowley wrote with a Swan.

Edited July 30, 2009 by stevensteven

[ZeissIkon]

"Using the same tools as a great man will not make one a great man."

 

True, but "It's a poor workman who blames his tools."

 

I doubt Conan Doyle used a secretary for the Holmes stories, though he probably could afford one by the 1920s. By that time, he was heavily into spiritualism, got involved in the "photographing fairies" hoax (on the side of claiming it was genuine), and I'm sure could write with whatever he chose -- and might well have used a Duofold the last few years of his life. Earlier, though, he probably wrote with either a pencil or a dip pen (the earliest Holmes stories were written before fountain pens were common).

 

I suspect dip pens were used a lot for drafts in the 19th century -- with a little care, nibs lasted a while, ink was cheapish, and pencils weren't at all free; it was probably cheaper to write penuriously with dip pens than with pencils (and writers have seldom been rich folk, at least when they were doing their best work).

[DAYoung]

Yes, Marcel Proust used dip pens, particularly favouring those from his schooldays. This was part of his nostalgic personality: he clung to objects that spoke of his childhood.

 

Now, famous types with fountain pens. Well, many of the most well-known writers, scholars, artists of the first half of the twentieth century used them - just as a matter of course. Off the top of my head...

 

- Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre all used fountain pens (along with typewriters). But I don't know what sort. (Though there's a letter from Arendt to Heidegger, with her mentioning her broken pen.)

 

- Edith Wharton used a green marbled Conklin, and it's still at The Mount.

 

- Evelyn Waugh used a pen, and I'm fairly certain it was a fountain pen. (Max Beerbohm said it was impossible Waugh's phrases could've been written with a typewriter.)

 

- Joseph Conrad asked for a reputable fountain pen as an advance.

 

[penrivers]

Yes, Marcel Proust used dip pens, particularly favouring those from his schooldays. This was part of his nostalgic personality: he clung to objects that spoke of his childhood.

 

Now, famous types with fountain pens. Well, many of the most well-known writers, scholars, artists of the first half of the twentieth century used them - just as a matter of course. Off the top of my head...

 

- Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre all used fountain pens (along with typewriters). But I don't know what sort. (Though there's a letter from Arendt to Heidegger, with her mentioning her broken pen.)

 

- Edith Wharton used a green marbled Conklin, and it's still at The Mount.

 

- Evelyn Waugh used a pen, and I'm fairly certain it was a fountain pen. (Max Beerbohm said it was impossible Waugh's phrases could've been written with a typewriter.)

 

- Joseph Conrad asked for a reputable fountain pen as an advance.

well DAY young, in some sense the best Proust's dip pen was a madelein diped in chocolate in Combrai.

Maybe Conrad asked for a fountain pen made of ivory from Mistah Kurtz. Greetings from México.

[DAYoung]

well DAY young, in some sense the best Proust's dip pen was a madelein diped in chocolate in Combrai.

Maybe Conrad asked for a fountain pen made of ivory from Mistah Kurtz. Greetings from México.

 

The nib that dipped the ink, that dipped the madeleine, that bloomed a world...

 

And, just to correct myself: Conrad asked his literary agent, JB Pinker, for the pen. Perhaps it came out of his royalties - I'm not sure of their commercial arrangement. (Agents often take 10-15%.)

 

[penrivers]

well DAY young, in some sense the best Proust's dip pen was a madelein diped in chocolate in Combrai.

Maybe Conrad asked for a fountain pen made of ivory from Mistah Kurtz. Greetings from México.

 

The nib that dipped the ink, that dipped the madeleine, that bloomed a world...

 

And, just to correct myself: Conrad asked his literary agent, JB Pinker, for the pen. Perhaps it came out of his royalties - I'm not sure of their commercial arrangement. (Agents often take 10-15%.)

Perfect. You are right.