What Pens Did/do Famous Writers Use?

[Geoff V]

Martin Gilbert writes with a Pelikan.

There's a hint of irony in that.

[garnet]

Hermann Hesse wrote with an Osmia Supra, which he sent in for rapair in 1930. When he got the pen back he wrote: "Herzlichen Dank für die reparierte Feder! Leider ist sie etwas gröber geworden, früher hat sie haarfein geschrieben. Aber ich selbst bin ja auch nicht mehr, was ich einst war, so will ich gern zufrieden sein."

 

Joachim Ringelnatz wrote a poem for his Montblanc: "Mir ist um mein Gepäck nicht bang./ Ich trage, was ich besitze,/ Novellen, Gedichte und Witze,/ Im Füllfederhalter von Montblanc."

 

Cheers!

 

Armin

 

Thank you for that post Fluegelfeder. Hermann Hesse is one of my hero authors . I've seen pictures of Hesse using what looks like an eye dropper, a pencil and a type writer.

Ted Hughes used a fountain pen. At least he did when he signed my copy of 'Crow' way back in 1973. But I have no recollection as to what make or model it was. :bonk:

 

Edited January 21, 2011 by garnet

[Milosz]

There's a short story in today's NY Times (Feb. 5) about Jon Robin Baitz and his pen - he's not the most famous writer, but he has a new play opening in NY. His pen is a humble Kaweco. An excerpt:

 

 

Showy fountain pens left him cold. "I never want the Mercedes-Benz version of something. Fancy things always suggest a nervous desire to be splendid."

 

It wasn’t until a few years ago, when he was living in Los Angeles again and working on “Brothers & Sisters,” the television show he created, that he discovered the Kaweco Sport. Made in Germany by Kaweco, a venerable name in pen circles, the Sport has a gold-plated nib, weighs less than a third of an ounce and sells (at the moment, at least, at jetpens.com) for $15. The writer found himself intrigued and, in due course, bewitched.

 

“I thought it was a perfect little thing,” he said. “I love its precision, its modesty, its clarity and its minimal fuss. This is the cheaper, more practical version of a Mercedes. All I really need is this and a notepad. I could go for hours, days, weeks.”

 

With the Kaweco Sport in hand, he said, both ink and thoughts flow freely. But most of his writing is done on the computer, and the pen lies on his desk, a symbol of free-flowing ink, or in his pocket, a cigarettelike toy to fiddle with, a symbol of free-blowing smoke.

[laureat]

I wish we knew wich brand fountainpen Anne Frank wrote her diary with. She so loved her pen. It sadly melted by accident when she dumped it it the fire with dirt and beans. She wrote an "ode" (a lovesong) for her fountainpen. The blue-black ink, the regular handwriting,.... her thoughts and feelings all went on a travel through the fountainpen and ink in her famous diary. Her loss of her faithfull fountainpen made me cry when I read the page. :embarrassed_smile: We, as FP-lovers can imagine her despair when she found out it burnt. And she could not easily buy an other one.....

Anne Frank had a beautiful handwriting. Her original scripts are now on display in the Anne Frank Museum.

[Thornton]

In "My Reading Life," Pat Conroy stated that he writes with a fountain pen on yellow legal pads. I don't know what brand(s) though.

[yotiao]

Writers from the far east.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5140/5446225985_38966c678a_o.jpg

Cao Yu, was a renowned Chinese playwright, his most well-known works are Thunderstorm (1933), Sunrise (1936) and Peking Man (1940). He was using a Sheaffer Snorkel (?) in the photo.

 

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5091/5446226079_8c19b0f4a6_o.gif

Yukio Mishima, it looked like a Parker 51 (?).

[shufen]

Orhan Pamuk, Nobel prize laureate, uses a fountain pen for his writing, or so I read somewhere. I would like to know which one.

 

From art of fiction no 187...

Orhan Pamuk, Nobel prize laureate, uses a fountain pen for his writing, or so I read somewhere. I would like to know which one....

 

I got an answer from a Turkish fountain pen user of this site http://www.banasikcayaz.com:

 

"Hi,

 

This is very famous that Orhan Pamuk uses fountain pen while writing his novels and saving his empty cartridges. As far as I know he uses a metal Sheaffer 444 for his novels.

 

Hope it helped.

 

Best Regards,"

 

A page in Turkish tells more details about his using Sheaffer 444: http://lifeisblue.blogspot.hk/2013/06/dolma-kalem-tesadufum-orhan-pamuk.html

 

I think he also uses Parker Duofold, read this: http://waynekspear.com/2011/09/06/how-writers-write/

 

Some more info:

Though Pamuk was not a collector in any serious sense before he set out to make a museum, he admits to being incapable of disposing of certain things. "I get used to my fountain pens and my clothes," he says, “and I can never throw them away. I replace them only when I see that they are broken or embarrassing to wear."

 

And, "fountain pen" in Turkish is "dolma kalem". (Oh, btw, I am no Turk.)

[Jbloodwo]

I read an interview with sci-fi author Neal Stephenson and he uses fountain pens to write the first draft of his books.

trembles at the thought of dropping a stack of paper that must have been almost a foot tall contacting the first draft of the cryptonomicon

---EDIT---

Does any one know if PKD (Phillip K Dick) used a pen or typewriter.

and some cool photos of the pen of cs lewis

http://brandonvogt.com/wp-content/uploads/09-Lewis-Pen-575x429.jpg

 

and J.R.R Tolkien dip pen

http://brandonvogt.com/wp-content/uploads/23-Tolkien-pen-575x429.jpg

 

from http://brandonvogt.com/tolkiens-desk-lewis-pen/ which documents the Lewis collection at Wheaton.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Jbloodwo

[shufen]

Putin seemed to have signed the Crimean treaty with this pen. Montblanc 149 isn't it? Who can recognize the pen?

http://i2.mail.com/818/2721818,h=425,pd=1,w=620/vladimir-putin.jpg

 

[rwilsonedn]

There is a travel piece on the NY Times at the moment with photos of Dylan Thomas's work shed. On his desk is what appears to be a quite inexpensive fountain pen, perhaps with a wooden barrel and metal cap. Or perhaps it is an odd dip pen holder. At any rate, there is an ink bottle nearby. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/travel/following-dylan-thomas-in-wales.html?src=dayp) if the link works for you.

Any ideas what it might be?

ron

[Guest Ray Cornett]

There is a Montblanc tour video on Youtube which shows a section of their factory" which is like a long hallway which has display cases of famous writers Montblancs which I wound interesting.

[fountainpagan]

Colette used a flat top Parker Duofold

 

Georges Simenon use a Waterman CF

[BMG]

Georges Perec used a Montblanc:

 

 

Though the FPN specialists have been unable to determine if it was a 146 or a 149.

 

Whatever model it was, it is entirely fitting that he chose this brand, given that there was a Hôtel Montblanc in the Rue Vilin (at number 45), where he grew up.

 

[Jbloodwo]

There is a travel piece on the NY Times at the moment with photos of Dylan Thomas's work shed. On his desk is what appears to be a quite inexpensive fountain pen, perhaps with a wooden barrel and metal cap. Or perhaps it is an odd dip pen holder. At any rate, there is an ink bottle nearby. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/travel/following-dylan-thomas-in-wales.html?src=dayp) if the link works for you.

Any ideas what it might be?

ron

looking at the photo full size, and judging from the mason jar that has pencils and what appears to be a dip pen i am guessing that Thomas used a dip pen.

[BMG]

Just stumbled across this: "The Writing Tools of 20 Famous Authors," which add a few more writers to our little list.

[Historian]

Donna Tartt always signs books with a fountain pen. She also seems to have a preference for brown ink when signing.

[Jbloodwo]

I think Stephen king was mentioned but this is a cool quote from

http://blog.penshop.co.uk/news/celebrities-and-their-pens/

 

2. Stephen King used a Waterman Fountain Pen to write his novel Dreamcatcher and even mentioned this in the Author’s Note: “One final note. This book was written with the world’s finest word processor, a Waterman cartridge fountain pen. To write the first draft of such a long book by hand put me in touch with the language as I haven’t been in years. I even wrote one night (during a power outage) by candlelight. One rarely finds such opportunities in the twenty-first century, and they are to be savored.”-Stephen King

[pdc13]

I came across this online article about TS Eliot's pen:

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9939931/T.S.-Eliots-fountain-pen-replaces-Dickenss-quill-at-the-Royal-Society-of-Literature.html

 

Can someone identify his pen in the picture?

 

Here's his signature (I got this from Wikipedia):

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/TS_Eliot_Signature.svg/200px-TS_Eliot_Signature.svg.png

[Jbloodwo]

I came across this online article about TS Eliot's pen:

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9939931/T.S.-Eliots-fountain-pen-replaces-Dickenss-quill-at-the-Royal-Society-of-Literature.html

 

Can someone identify his pen in the picture?

 

Here's his signature (I got this from Wikipedia):

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/TS_Eliot_Signature.svg/200px-TS_Eliot_Signature.svg.png

i wish i could tell you i downloaded the photo from the article. However, the resolution is to low to be able to see what logo is on the clip.

 

----EDIT----

 

oops that is the lever for the filler shown. I think i may drop either marketing or educational contact a line at the royal society and see if they have any more information on the pen.

Edited April 7, 2014 by Jbloodwo

[womyn]

Could any of you identify the pen, Thomas Mann holds in his hand?

It seems, he writes with white ink(?) on a black piece of paper???