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Who use which fountain pen?


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We have some reason to believe Patrick O'Brian used a Parker 21, and I suspect that this was not a Super 21. At the time he would have bought that pen, he and his wife were quite poor, and it makes sense that he would have bought a 21 rather than one of the more expensive Parkers.

In fact, Patrick O'Brian's pen seems to have been a Parker 45. From an article in the L.A. Times (November 30, 1999) we know that O'Brian wrote "with a Parker fountain pen upon plain typing paper," and from a note to himself published in "21: The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey" (on the first of two handwritten pages with the number 19 in the upper right corner, near the end of the book) we gather that he used a cartridge pen ("If I go back to TCD I might look for pen-cartridges"). The book "Patrick O'Brian: Critical Essays and a Bibliography," edited by A. E. Cunningham, contains a black-and-white photograph of O'Brian in his study holding a pen, and below that photograph another, also black-and-white, of the pen resting on a manuscript page. In the second photo you can just make out that the pen is a Parker 45, apparently with a chrome cap and a plastic barrel (the photographs face p. 73).

 

L.A. Times articles:

 

<http://8.12.42.31/1999/nov/30/news/cl-38798>

 

<http://articles.latimes.com/2004/oct/31/books/bk-balzar31>

 

A few other writers and their pens:

 

John Barth: A "maroon-and-brushed-silver Parker 51" (from Barth's "The Ink-Stained Thumb" in the book "Rules of Thumb" by Michael Martone and Susan Neville, 2006). The pen is an English 51. According to another source the cap is chrome. It seems to me that I read not long ago that Barth used a Montblanc on Fridays to write essays, but now I can't find the source to confirm it.

 

<http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-review/note.asp?note=20158670>

 

Roland Barthes: I can't name a particular pen, but in an interview with "Le Monde" (September 27, 1973), published in the volume "The Grain of the Voice" under the title "An Almost Obsessive Relation to Writing Instruments," Barthes said that he had "far too many pens" (and not just fountain pens) and that he didn't know what to do with them all. "And yet, as soon as I see a new one, I start craving it. I cannot keep myself from buying them." He tried everything, except Bics. But "in the end, I always return to fine fountain pens" (University of Califonia Press edition, 1991, p. 178).

 

Jonathan Carroll: A Parker 51.

 

<http://www.jonathancarroll.com/blog/archiveDetail.php?m=1&y=2009>

 

Elmore Leonard: He used to write with a Montblanc ballpoint, but switched to a Pilot V5 Precise.

 

<http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-leonard-elmore.asp>

 

<http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/interviews/leonard.html>

 

Anne Tyler: A Parker 75 with a No. 62 nib.

 

<http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/offthepage/guide.htm?command=Search&db=/catalog/main.txt&eqisbndata=0099480018>

 

Edith Wharton: A Conklin Endura Symetrik in green marbleized plastic. The pen, or one of her pens like it, is pictured on pages 203 and 212 of the book "American Writers at Home" by J. D. McClatchy with photographs by Erica Lennard, Library of America, 2004.

 

<http://www.artfact.com/auction-lot/wharton,-edith-an-endura-symetrik-lever-fount-1-c-4odsh1ywal>

 

<http://www.edithwharton.org/uploaded_files/Mount_03News.pdf>

 

 

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What is a Planck nib and it's history or magic? A quick Google search only brings me to Mottishaw's webpage mentioned above, and this very thread (kinda a circular thing, ya know?).

 

Fred

 

And according to John Mottishaw's writer's page Art Spiegelman (creator of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize winning memoir as graphic novel Maus: A Survivor's Tale) likes "Planck" nibs that can be fitted into a Pelikan.

 

My guess is that a Planck nib has a constant flow ( :rolleyes: ) Sorry (not very, actually) could not resist. By the same token, though, a Heisenberg nib would make very uncertain marks on the paper.

 

Donnie

 

Anyone know where I could get one of these? Since I'm also looking for fountain pens for uses similiar to Speigelman I'd love to try out what he used. Not that I'm hoping to imitate him...but I do use dip pen nibs that Carl Barks used. I like to dream. ;)

 

Thanks,

 

Shawn

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  • 1 month later...

Can't tell you what kind, but it's a ball point or rollerball.

Does not always write loving messages.

Does not always foot up columns correctly.

Does not always sign big checks.

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Although Nixon had Parker Ballpoints he also had Parker Fountain pens - I have seen some 45's with his signature from his time as the President.

 

Rowdy

 

Cool page - www.loringpage.com in regard to pens used by US Presidents from Truman to Clinton.

 

 

I saw a picture once of Nixon in the oval office with a legal pad and a Parker 75.

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Although Nixon had Parker Ballpoints he also had Parker Fountain pens - I have seen some 45's with his signature from his time as the President.

 

Rowdy

 

Cool page - www.loringpage.com in regard to pens used by US Presidents from Truman to Clinton.

 

 

I saw a picture once of Nixon in the oval office with a legal pad and a Parker 75.

 

Nixon probably learned to write with a dip pen -- he was born before WWI, after all...

Does not always write loving messages.

Does not always foot up columns correctly.

Does not always sign big checks.

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I know that the noted columnist and political commentator George Will used to write with an M800 and presumably is still using it. I also know that he used to use a 149.

 

I remember seeing a picture of Hemingway with a Parker-I can't remember if it was a 51.

 

I stated in another post that I read somewhere that Harrison Ford is a big Waterman fan.

 

I remember seeing a picture of Einstein in his sweatshirt with a vintage Waterman Patrician clipped to it.

 

Best Regards,

Dave

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Neal Stephenson, science fiction writer (Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle), writes "on 100 percent cotton paper, using three different fountain pens: a Waterman Gentleman, a Rotring, and a Jorg Hysek. It was then transcribed, edited, and formatted using eMacs and TeX."

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What is a Planck nib and it's history or magic? A quick Google search only brings me to Mottishaw's webpage mentioned above, and this very thread (kinda a circular thing, ya know?).

 

Fred

 

And according to John Mottishaw's writer's page Art Spiegelman (creator of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize winning memoir as graphic novel Maus: A Survivor's Tale) likes "Planck" nibs that can be fitted into a Pelikan.

 

My guess is that a Planck nib has a constant flow ( :rolleyes: ) Sorry (not very, actually) could not resist. By the same token, though, a Heisenberg nib would make very uncertain marks on the paper.

 

Donnie

 

 

And my guess is that with a Heisenberg nib, you wouldn't be able to measure the mark made by the nib without changing the nib itself! But that's just a principally uncertain guess. My brother used to have a great bumper sticker that just said: Heisenberg ?

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  • 1 month later...

Stephen King mentioned in the preface of one of his novels that he used a Waterman to pen some of his stories. But he also used an Olivetti typewriter when he startes his career and - as of recently - an Apple computer. Plus (as far as I remember) some Berol pencils if that counts ;-)

 

i.

ihimlen

www.opiorach.blogspot.com

www.forumopiorach.net

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  • 2 weeks later...

I use Parker Ball pen , but have no idea about the fountain pen as I've stopped using the fountain pen after 7th standard. :P

 

regards

________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________

 

John

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Here's a bit of history. Tho not world famous like some of the great leaders mentioned here, Malaysia's first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman signed our declaration of Independence with a Parker 61. Now available for purchase of course (no affiliation to the shop.) Link

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards. - Robert Heinlein

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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.

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According to the piece done by Vanity Fair's October issue, William Manchester when he was writing "The Death of a President" in 1965.

 

"I have no appetite - for food, for beauty, for life. I slept fitfully; when I did drift off, I dreamt of Dallas. I was gripping my Esterbrook so hard that my thumb began to bleed under the nail. It became infected.... marring the manuscript pages with blood."

Edited by lucentstreak

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3252/3157773197_46e4d8e78b_o.png

"Words dazzle and deceive because they mimed by the face

But black words on a white page are the soul laid bare"

 

--Guy De Maupassant

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  • 3 weeks later...

There is a photograph of Hemingway with a Parker 51. There is also a photo of JFK using a Montblanc 149

Edited by zubipen

Write, write, write. Use your pens not your fingers !!!

 

 

 

 

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/5642/postcardde9.png

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  • 3 weeks later...

Although Nixon had Parker Ballpoints he also had Parker Fountain pens - I have seen some 45's with his signature from his time as the President.

 

Rowdy

 

Cool page - www.loringpage.com in regard to pens used by US Presidents from Truman to Clinton.

 

A side note, but Nixon had a taste for Parker 75s. Someone apparently gave him one during the 68 election, and he took a shine to it. Here's a good reference:

 

http://www.parker75.addr.com/Reference/Keepsake/President_Nixons_Keepsake_75.htm

"Here was a man who had said, with his wan smile, that once he realized that he would never be a protagonist, he decided to become, instead, an intelligent spectator, for there was no point in writing without serious motivation." - Casaubon referring to Belbo, Foucault's Pendulum.

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  • 1 month later...

This is a great thread.

I'm particularly interested in writers/artists/inventors pens. Thanks RealSteve for posting references also.

 

Any info about Virginia Woolf and Nabokov? I know Nabokov used pencils.

 

Thanks

 

My blog on writing instruments Palimpsest

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  • 2 months later...

I'd like to tell about post Soviet politicians. Ukrainian president Viktor Yuschenko is some kind of FPNer in MB. He likes them most of all! And he has some models that are very very expensive and even several that are the only (that is skeleton with the map of Ukraine).

 

 

i wonder where you found that information?

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