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Who use which fountain pen?


coffe_cup

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Can I add a note to the Gaiman thing? He's a bit of a pen hound, and while he does namecheck the Lamy 2000 a fair bit, he's also namedropped the Waterman Phileas quite heavily, and has been observed in the wild signing books with a very expensive Italian pen.

 

His role model Michael Moorcock has only ever mentioned using an Osmiroid, though he didn't specify what sort of Osmiroid in the quotation I saw.

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Anyone knows what pen Antoine de Saint-Exupery used? I understand he used to make his own when he was young...

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Anyone knows what pen Antoine de Saint-Exupery used? I understand he used to make his own when he was young...

 

Presumably "make his own" referred to quills, which virtually every user cut and trimmed for him/herself. These were still in fairly broad use when he'd have been a child, just before WWI, having the advantage (in what was then still an agricultural economy, for the most part, even in Europe) of being effectively free for country folk and pretty cheap even for city dwellers, compared to steel pen points that cost to buy and would rust before they wore out.

 

As for what he'd have been using from the 1920s to 1940s, that's anyone's guess; that was the golden age of fountain pens, with new patents issuing almost weekly. Worth noting, however, that most pilots were in the habit of using pencils while in flight, as even at altitudes below 10,000 feet, a fountain pen from pre-WWII times could be counted on to misbehave during the climb...

Does not always write loving messages.

Does not always foot up columns correctly.

Does not always sign big checks.

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Anyone knows what pen Antoine de Saint-Exupery used? I understand he used to make his own when he was young...

 

Here you can find a picture of him using one, but is hard to say which one:

http://www.gatsbyonline.com/Users/8/Images/GatsbyAviation/Saint-Ex_18.JPG

 

http://www.gatsbyonline.com/main.aspx?page=text&id=9&cat=aviation

Thanks DP! A pity I do not read French but can see that it seems to be a concise article on the life / death of Saint-Ex..

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Anyone knows what pen Antoine de Saint-Exupery used? I understand he used to make his own when he was young...

 

Presumably "make his own" referred to quills, which virtually every user cut and trimmed for him/herself. These were still in fairly broad use when he'd have been a child, just before WWI, having the advantage (in what was then still an agricultural economy, for the most part, even in Europe) of being effectively free for country folk and pretty cheap even for city dwellers, compared to steel pen points that cost to buy and would rust before they wore out.

 

As for what he'd have been using from the 1920s to 1940s, that's anyone's guess; that was the golden age of fountain pens, with new patents issuing almost weekly. Worth noting, however, that most pilots were in the habit of using pencils while in flight, as even at altitudes below 10,000 feet, a fountain pen from pre-WWII times could be counted on to misbehave during the climb...

True that the self-made pens might have been quills.. considering he was born into provincial nobility with easy access to game in his family's country estates.

 

The point about pilots using pencils is valid as well - thanks! If I remember correctly, there are a few scenes in the movie 'Night Flight' where Clark Gable(?) used a pencil to log his flights..

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The 2000 paperback English edition of "Carnets" A. de Saint Exupèry is not a common book ( it has been publish in French & Spanish also). Is a recompilation of personal letters & journals. It describes, among other things, that he got hooked on fountain pens by looking at his uncle, the eccentric of the family, who used to write in green with the tip of his fountain pen upside down (a habit he would pick up along with microscopic writing) his kids stories and novels, and wake up Antoine's parents at 4 a.m. to read them while on the phone.

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Here is the cover of the French edition, showing him using his pen(I like the way he holds it). Worth reading.

http://image.evene.fr/img/livres/g/2070406121.jpg

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And another picture I've just found.http://www.gech.ch/Livres_LET_Images/ldi1584p-let-exupery.jpg

Wow thanks! I've never come across those pics previously. In the 'Carnet' photo he was holding the pen real high. The other person I knew who used green ink exclusively is Gerd-Rudiger Lang, founder of Chronoswiss watches. Every warranty card is supposedly signed by him personally in ink of that colour.

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On last Sunday's CBS Sunday Morning program there was a package on Neil Gaiman, particularly in connection with the film version of Coraline. One shot showed him working at his desk writing with a Lamy Accent fountain pen.

Edited by dwattsjr
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The historican/author Shelby Foote used a post office-type dip pen for his first drafts. Said that it slowed him down and made him think more. Fewer crossouts.

Former SCOUS Associate Justice David Souter used an old(50 years) Esterbrook for all of his writing while on the court. Probably still uses it for personal correspondence.

Pat Barnes a.k.a. billz

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I remember reading somewhere that David Lloyd George used a gold Waterman's 52 to sign the Treaty of Versailles.

Cordialement.

R.J.E.

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  • 2 months later...

I read somewhere that Virginia Woolf used to write with a fountain pen in the morning and typewrite in the afternoon. I would like to know what brands she used.

 

Ah, I have been reading Virginia Woolfs diaries of late. She makes references to Waterman's being the best pens. Last night I stumbled across this entry;

 

Monday 29th September 1924

"A fortnight later: writing partly to test my new Penkala (professing fountain pen qualities), partly to exorcise my demons."

 

Pip-pip!

Cordialement.

R.J.E.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I believe Abraham Lincoln used a Waterman.

Don't quote me on this, but I think Abraham Lincoln died about twenty years before Mr Waterman invented his fountain pens.

Cordialement.

R.J.E.

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  • 1 month later...

i'm going to ask a question: what pens did Oxford and Cambridge give faculty (i heard they did this) before the bp era?

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I believe Abraham Lincoln used a Waterman.

Don't quote me on this, but I think Abraham Lincoln died about twenty years before Mr Waterman invented his fountain pens.

Perhaps it was Lincoln's son Robert who used a Waterman? I think he was alive until the early/mid 1920's.

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