Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Parker Duofold...?

[Shangas]

Famous Scottish doctor and fiction-writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), creator of the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes, apparently wrotes some of his world-famous Holmes stories with this pen:

 

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/9782/sirarthurconandoyle1921lx9.jpg

 

This little snippet of pen-information came from the site of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. The following caption came with the picture of the pen:

 

Parker Duofold from the year 1921. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote stories of Sherlock Holmes with this type of pen.

 

One of the world's most famous authors writing about his most famous character with one of the world's most famous fountain pens? It seems too good to be true.

 

 

[encephalartos]

Famous Scottish doctor and fiction-writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), creator of the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes, apparently wrotes some of his world-famous Holmes stories with this pen:

 

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/9782/sirarthurconandoyle1921lx9.jpg

 

This little snippet of pen-information came from the site of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. The following caption came with the picture of the pen:

 

Parker Duofold from the year 1921. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote stories of Sherlock Holmes with this type of pen.

 

One of the world's most famous authors writing about his most famous character with one of the world's most famous fountain pens? It seems too good to be true.

 

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) used Conklins and gave advertising testimonials for them, including one that said they

reduced the need for profanity by not rolling off the table (probably crescent filler?)

 

The company now known as Conklin makes some "Mark Twain" edition pens.

[Col]

Parker Duofold from the year 1921. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote stories of Sherlock Holmes with this type of pen.

Did it have a speckled band, I wonder?

 

[Shangas]

No, no speckled band

[sleek_lover]

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) used Conklins and gave advertising testimonials for them, including one that said they

reduced the need for profanity by not rolling off the table (probably crescent filler?)

 

The company now known as Conklin makes some "Mark Twain" edition pens.

 

This is the only LE/celeb pen I have ever wanted. Sam'l and I have something in common (other than a very ascerbic wit and a love of words) and I cherish the Conklin Crescent ringtop Richard B. restored for me.

 

As to a ACD, MD Duofold..?? Makes some sense. The man had good taste, as I recollect...

 

Bill

[funzoneplanet]

That's pretty cool! Thanks for sharing that info with us. I had no idea that some of his sherlock holmes stories were written out using a fountain pen.

[donwinn]

Parker Duofold from the year 1921. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote stories of Sherlock Holmes with this type of pen.

Did it have a speckled band, I wonder?

Ouch!! Why didn't I think of that? That sounds like something I would say, if I were quicker. :roflmho:

Donnie

[Penturner]

[

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) used Conklins and gave advertising testimonials for them, including one that said they

reduced the need for profanity by not rolling off the table (probably crescent filler?)

 

The company now known as Conklin makes some "Mark Twain" edition pens.

 

Samual Clemmons definately usd the "Conklin Crescent Filler", It is the pen he schilled for, and to the best of my knowledge the only pen made by Conklin at the time. Clemmons died in 1910.

 

Perhaps one of our historians can help here: Were ther any other "self-filling" fountain pens manufacurred and sold prior to clemmons death?

 

[dlmoak]

As a possible point of interest, Doyle, while traveling in South Africa, became involved in the murder trial of a traveling salesman for the Mabie, Todd pen company. The salesman was either acquitted or the case was dismissed, I can't recall which without my notes.

[RLTodd]

I thought Conan Doyle was a paid endorser of Parker toward the end of his life.

 

I think, someone will have to check the publishing dates, all of the Holmes storys date from before WW1. He may have used a Parker to write them, but it would not have been a (1921 introduction?) Duofold.

 

p.s. From subsequent posts. I am supprised that Doyle was writing the Holmes storys as late as 1927. I checked my 40 year old Doubleday edition and there is a 1927 copyright listed, and further checking seems to indicate that "The Casebook.." was published in 1927, three years before his death. So, he may have actually written some of the later stories with a Parker Duofold.

Edited October 12, 2007 by RLTodd

[Ink Stained Wretch]

I think, someone will have to check the publishing dates, all of the Holmes storys date from before WW1. He may have used a Parker to write them, but it would not have been a (1921 introduction?) Duofold.

I was wondering about that too. But a quick search revealed this Web site which seems to indicate that he could have written some of the last of the Holmes stories with a fountain pen manufactured in 1921. The last of his Holmes stories was published in 1927, according to that site. Odd that adults could get so obsessed with something. I'm glad that none of us here on the Fountain Pen Network are like that.

[Shangas]

According to my knowledge, Doyle was instrumental in gaining acquittals for at least two men in two different trials. In one of them, he successfully proved that the man couldn't have committed the crime on account of his very poor eyesight.

 

Doyle wrote the Holmes stories until 1927, when he stopped for good. Despite the huge fame and wealth that they brought him, Doyle believed his real work was his other writings, and NOT Holmes.

[randyholhut]

Parker did feature Doyle in some of its Duofold ads around the time of his death. Interestingly enough, they also used Giacomo Puccini to sell Duofolds too. According to one ad from the 1920s, "The Parker Pen is superlatively good," Puccini supposedly wrote to a friend.

 

Considering Parker used the same tactic, using notables from the world of arts and letters, to sell their "51" after the war, I guess they thought it was a good marketing ploy.

[Col]

Parker Duofold from the year 1921. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote stories of Sherlock Holmes with this type of pen.

Did it have a speckled band, I wonder?

Ouch!! Why didn't I think of that? That sounds like something I would say, if I were quicker. :roflmho:

I'm afraid you were the dog in the night-time, Donnie.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Parker did feature Doyle in some of its Duofold ads around the time of his death. Interestingly enough, they also used Giacomo Puccini to sell Duofolds too. According to one ad from the 1920s, "The Parker Pen is superlatively good," Puccini supposedly wrote to a friend.

 

Considering Parker used the same tactic, using notables from the world of arts and letters, to sell their "51" after the war, I guess they thought it was a good marketing ploy.

And it's an old marketing ploy and one that's still going strong today. One fast example from before Doyle's time that leaps immediately to mind is that of chess sets.

 

The Jaques company made a chess set and got it endorsed by the English chess champion, and probably the strongest chess player of the late 1840s, one Howard Staunton. So this design of chess set was called the Staunton Chess Set by the company. I don't know if it was Staunton's name being attached to the set or not but the set sold very well. In fact they're still selling very well today and serve as the pattern of the standard chess sets all over the world.