Edward Said, Sheaffer, And Fountain Pens

[Arstook]

I was rummaging through old issues of PENnant and as luck would have it, stumbled onto some interesting history. The 2002 issue featured an interview with famed Palestinian-American professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University, Edward Said. The author of Orientalism (1978), a text enormously influential for Middle Eastern studies, was an avid fountain pen user. His relationship with them began as a student in 1950s Cairo, Egypt, where the heat made early ballpoints explode and made fountain pens the writing tool of choice.

 

Said's father was the owner of one of the major stationery stores in the city and also had business connections in Lebanon. From a Christian family, Said recounted that Christmases were boom times for fountain pen sales where Parker and Sheaffer were the grist of family conversation. The elder Said and son even visited the Sheaffer headquarters in Fort Madison, Iowa. There, the elder Said met with Craig Sheaffer in an attempt to win the rights to promote Sheaffer in the Middle East from a local competitor.

 

Edward Said received a Sheaffer Snorkel pen from his father in the early 1950s, a supreme gift for the college aged scholar-to-be. During the 2002 interview, Said mentioned he still treasured and wrote with the Snorkel, perhaps the oldest pen in his possession. He would amass about 100 fountain pens over course of his life, a collection which would include Montblanc and Diplomat.

 

All credit goes to: D. Anna Lawson, "The Place of Pens," The PENnant 16, no. 2 (2002): 28-29.

Edited January 6, 2018 by Arstook

[mitto]

Interesting read. Thank you.

[inkstainedruth]

The photo is very cool. If for no other reason than my mother used a Royal manual typewriter for years, before upgrading to an IBM Selectric sometime in the 1970s.

Thanks for posting.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Brianm_14]

I immediately knew who you were writing about from conversations with my wife, a professor of English. I clearly recall when she was reading Orientalism for a grad course. I started, but never got a chance to finish the book. Now i'll need to rectify that.

 

oh, the places pens takes us! Some lovely journeys, for sure. Thanks for such a nice detailed write- up and choice of a photograph.