My writer is an elderly man (mid 90s) who needed so initial and sign his advance directives for health care -- power of attorney and living will. I had discussed options with him, in which conversation I got marvelous stories which touched my heart. When I brought him the papers to ink, I deemed that this was a person who would understand fountain pens, so I offered him one of mine. His response: Ah! A real pen! He's my guy..
Thom, I am so sorry to hear this and hope that you prevail. I am so glad my videos can give you some distraction and pleasure. Wishing you all the best and thanks for being here.
Love the episode! Someone already mentioned Lovecraft, but I know Arthur Conan Doyle used a Parker Duofold and Agatha Christie was a fan of Conway Stewart. I believe Tolkien used a dip pen!
Thank you! I loved doing this one! I am sure I will do more. I actually have a slightly different twist that is similar, but different! I will do more of these though.
@@HemingwayJones totally looking forward to it. There is something about wearing a watch, or writing with a pen of somebody you look up to. I mean those Hemingway bubblebacks, not to mention his typewriters ;)
H.P. Lovecraft used a Waterman's Ideal eyedropper until he lost it at a beach in 1919. He then bought a "raven black" self-filler, also a Waterman's Ideal, which he took back to the Waterman's store so that they could adjust the feed to increase the flow. Thanks for another fascinating video Hemingway!
@@HemingwayJones "...the raven black Waterman he finally selected was both sombre and non-ornate, with not even a small gold band encircling it"; bought after much deliberation over the course of 40 or so minutes in the "[New York] financial district of the 1920s" (pg. 57-58; Howard Phillips Lovecraft Dreamer on the Nightside by Frank Belknap Long) - I recommend this book highly as it is a nice snapshot of one man's impressions of HPL.
@@HemingwayJones The tuning stuff is from a letter written to R.H Barlow (friend and literary executor) in c.1935/6 if I remember correctly - "O Fortunate Floridian, the letters of H.P.Lovecraft and R.H.Barlow" contains many more fascinating insights, again highly recommended.
That was really interesting! I would enjoy a part 2. 😊 There is just something about the feel of a quality fountain pen that puts all others to shame. I was blessed with handwriting that fountain pens were made for; flowing but not at all bubbly. A great pen just gives you a sense of writing something world-changing, even if you are just signing timesheets. 👸🏻
The inherent beauty of writing with a fountain pen, is that you are more committed to what is being memorialized on paper. It takes much more thought and effort than simply typing.
That was a very interesting video (as all of yours are). It makes me curious about the pen choices of my favourite writers, like James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Ursula K Le Guin, Jean Paul Sartre, Philip K. Dick or Italo Calvino. I would be happy to see another episode of "Writer's Choice".
Mark Twain, Anne Frank’s, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Albert Einstein, Harper Lee, and Steven King are some other favorite authors. Always love seeing more on the tools authors use when creating. Thank you.
I'm a long-time fan since your FL days! Thank you for this video. Also a super Hemingway fan (and Dylan Thomas as well). I've been using 1945 and 1951 dated Parker “51" pens for about 15 years off and on as everyday writers. When you post the cap properly to suit yourself and your hand and get in the proper groove, the 51 writes like a dream. I went back to college to finish my degree with the two Parkers in my armory and did daily battle taking notes with them with no issues. Love them!
Finding out Neil Gaiman also uses a fountain pen to write his drafts like I do is kinda inspiring. The current pen I use mostly is my Jinhao X159 with an XF nib. Often writing reverse with some inks.
@@HemingwayJones I wish, I am an just an okay writer, also not marketable to general audience for most of my stuff. Think more pulp and romance. Still nice of you to say.
Thank you for this insight into the craft of writing from the standpoint of famous writers. It adds depth to the process of writing and appreciation for the beauty and even nobility of the writing instrument.
Hemingway Jones. I have just discovered your channel recently last week and I have to say that you are one of my favourite people on TH-cam. I thoroughly enjoy your videos and I always look forward to what video you will do next. Please keep up the good work.
There's an interesting story about Gaiman's 823. In an interview with Tim Ferriss, Gaiman says he wrote about 1.5 million signatures with he Pilot 823. "Then," Gaiman relates, "my three-year-old son found a place behind a cast iron fireplace in our house in Woodstock where if you just insert your father’s Pilot 823 pen, which you have found on the table, just to see if it would go in there, you can actually guarantee that without disassembling the house, we actually have to take the entire house apart to uninstall a cast iron fireplace from 1913 to get at the pen. That pen now has been given as a sacrifice to the house gods, so I need to get a new one." Great video!
My good friend, one of my favorite videos. Here are the reasons. 1. This wasn't just about fountain pens, it was about great writers who had amazing tools to express their art. Love it. 2. I am a MASSIVE Dr. Who fan! I have seen every episode from the old back and white to today. Love it! 3. I too have a Parker 51 from 1949 and struggling to find the edge, I thought it was my pen; but now I realize...it is just the way it is. When I find it, it is amazing.
What a great video! I love Dr. Who especially the first set of doctors. Also, if you haven’t read “Midnight’s Children” by Salman Rushdie, it is fantastic. For part 2, I would like to know some women authors who used fountain pens for writing their novels. I look forward to the next video!
I think we should all research our favorite writers’ favorite pens independently, then report back here to share. That way this comment section becomes a whole resource along with the video.
Wolf wasn’t the biggest fountain pen fan. She preferred dip pens. She was, however, a big fan of purple ink (and ink in general), specifically waterman tender purple :)
Lithub put out an extensive list of writers & authors which disclosed their choices of writing instruments: pencils, ballpoints, rollerballs & fountain pens. Gaiman was there, and his fondness of FPs. Thanks for the video.
Love this episode! Ernest Hemingway said so much with so few words. George Orwell shared similar views..... - Never use a long word where a short one will do. - If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. - Never use the passive where you can use the active. - Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. - Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.” Last but not least................. My biggest regret is the substandard look of the modern Parker 51. Why can't they get a better fit with the nib and section? When one buys a classic pen owned by the likes of the Queen of England one also expects a classic look to go along with it. Parker needs to clean up their act!
The modern 51 can’t get it right, because it uses a nib that is more or less like present day nibs, which really is hard to hide under the hood. The original 51s were designed originally as small tubular nibs,in concert with the collector, feed, and shell(hood) to work as one flawlessly. Rather than spend a bundle to recreate the original tooling for the 51, Newell Rubbermaid chose to use a blade type nib and cover it with an approximation of the old hood. Of course in this day perhaps they could have jobbed the nib,feed collector out to the Chinese Hero Pen co, whose 51 look a likes are built either with old 40s Parker equipment, or at least more modern copies made of the original Parker that were nationalized in the late 40s. Want a classic 51, get one of the originals there are plenty to be had, many for about the same as a gold nib recent “51.” The last 15 years I have been writing with a c 1953 aerometric, there is no pen in my 100 some pen collection that writes better or smoother.
Canadian writer Robertson Davies (1913 - 1995) used a waterman fountain pen. His personal pen, his writing chair, his typewriter and his writing desk were all donated to a large-format Chapters bookstore I helped open (and then close) located at Yonge and Eglington in Toronto. The pen was framed behind a glass case. There was a merger between the two rival large format bookstores some 20+ years ago, and the store, which cost $10-million to build, and wasn't budgeted to turn a profit for well over ten years, was closed within 2.5 years. It became a liquidation centre - and Robertson Davies' desk and chair were trashed. His pen stolen. His typewriter just disappeared. We had a fantastic children's book section, with luxurious sofas and arm chairs - all small sized for children. We had original artwork from Robert Musch's books on the wall. And we also had a real Brazilian ant farm. The ant farm was donated to the Toronto Zoo. The artwork was carefully re-housed, and the children's furniture (along with many other luxurious pieces of furniture in the store) were sold at an employee auction. I find myself thinking about that pen, and how terrible it is for someone to have stolen it. You may find this link worthwhile: www.thegentlemansjournal.com/article/pens-worlds-famous-authors/
I love Davies work. Such a shame about the fate of his tools! I have a book he signed and it's clear to me it was a fountain pen he used to sign it. I didn't know he used Waterman pens though. Thanks for sharing the info.
Excellent video! i'm currently working on a novel of my own & writing it out long hand with fountain pens has gone a long way to helping me to make more progress! Including with an 823 & a Lamy 2000 (among others, i tend to use a different pen & ink combination for each chapter as i go so that none of my pens feel left out 😂)
I'm so glad to see one of these videos where Hemingway is treated with the appropriate scholastic investigation. Most other "famous writers' pens" lists just associate Hemingway with Montegrappa and go no further. I appreciate the effort to do him justice in this regard and well done on the research.
Thank you very much! I just could never find much evidence tying him to Montegrappa. Sadly not many people seem to be interested in his pen choice, but I find it fascinating.
You might consider Rabindranath Tagore, and Indian polymath from Bengal. He wrote poetry and music (including the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh), was an accomplished artist, and founded a fascinating school, Santiniketan. I visited the school and its small museum, and was particularly struck by some of his poems. He took the scratched out parts and connected the blobs to make a lovely picture. A plant was growing up through the poem! He probably used dip pens, but I think you find him interesting, and I would love to learn more about him and his tools.
I am currently writing an 8 book series and I find my work is significantly better when I write by hand first. It may be a romanticized approach, but there is a certain magic from mind to hand to pen to paper. The words flow whether tears of joy or pain upon the page. Something I struggle with pecking on a keyboard.
I admire that approach very much. I work best on my iPad Pro fully aware of my irony! Thanks for watching! Here’s to your continued inspiration and creativity.
Love this! Please do more 'Famous Authors & Their Pens'. I'm new to the fountain pen world but one of my favorite moments has become writing while having your videos playing. Keep up the great work!
Wonderful video. I’ll also mention that poet and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney used fountain pens, and he wrote several poems featuring pens, including “The Conway Stewart,” “On the Gift of a Fountain Pen,”and his wonderful poem “Digging.”
Johnny Depp seen with a MB Hemingway, maybe added to his collection after portraying Hunter S Thompson, who had similar look on life and death with Hemingway..
How about a part 2? Stephen King, Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Neil deGrasse Tyson all use/used fountain pens.
Greetings from Panama. My name is Nelson Hernandez. I am 46 years old and, being left-handed, I started late in the world of fountain pens. I always loved them. Today I have a small collection, from Lamy (Al Star and 2 Safary) HongDian (2), Jinhao (4), MonteVerde (1), Parker Acromatic (1) and Ferris Wheel, carrusel series (2) my inks are MontBlanc and Wearingeul... little by little I am collecting and getting to know them. I Dream the Robert Louis Stevenson Fountain pen and Little Prince from MontBlanc
Quite interesting! My nomination for a further exploration of writers and their fountain pens would be John Barth, one of the pioneers of postmodern fiction, who uses a Parker 51 Demi that he acquired early in his career. He even had a picture of it (it's burgundy, Lustraloy cap) on one of his novels; one of his essays actually discussed how he got it and why he uses it.
Have to agree with your deduction regarding Hemingway. Occam almost certainly applies here. And you've got me thinking about my favourite authors, and what they might have used. One of the joys of the Internet is that we can search out photos easily, rather than having to spend hours in libraries (although I do enjoy that, too).
Thanks! You know, it’s not easy taking a definite stand in a video and making a call. Criticisms can come from many corners, but that is what we do on this Channel! The one problem with the internet is that you find the same 5 or 6 photos over and over again. Most photos are behind pay walls, so people use all the same ones over and over. I have a lot of books on Hemingway and I used those, but I would have loved to get into his papers at the JFK Library. But then, the video would have been lopsided toward Hemingway. Thanks as always for your excellent observations!
T S Eliot used one of the Watermans from the early part of the 20th century. It was gifted to him by his mother before he left America for Britain. Now part of the T S Eliot Museum. I assume this is the pen he used to draft some of the greatest poems and essays of the 20th century. Immortal now!
Very interesting. I love your Channel Hemingway, and yes another "Writers Pens" would be great. Many thanks for your enthusiasm which is very contagious 😂😊
There will be a Part 2, but not dedicated to any one thing. I do wish I had included some female authors here. I wasn't thinking strictly in those terms and I did look at several, but couldn't find anything definitive in the time I had for research. That is, except for Anne Frank, but her story makes me so sad, I have trouble speaking about it. I searched for a very long time for a Donna Tartt quote that she used an MB and didn't just write about them! No go. Also, I couldn't find which pen, if any, Sylvia Plath used, which I really wanted to include. Still, there will be additional opportunities.
Very well made HJ, interesting, instructive , like this one I want to see more. Can hardly wait for number two in the series of fountain pens by famous writers
I have actually been to Kinokunia in Shinjuku: when I lived in Tokyo it was one of the places one could find books in English. Picked up my beloved copy of Le Morte D'Arthur there. Thanks for the connection with Murakami
Thank you for this great video, Hemingway! I look forward to what other suggestions you get, because I am sure this is a video series that can have a lot of chapters.
Love this topic and interested in what pens authors use and also famous people in general. I got the nib that Marcel Proust used to write his books with. He used a dip pen. I cannot imagine how tedious that would be and it is fascinating to think about him writing so prolifically with a dip pen!
Enjoyed this episode. Hemingway is a favourite of mine as well. Would be curious to know about the pens of choice of folk like Samuel Beckett, Virginia Woolf, Walt Whitman, Herman Hesse ... thank you for an informative and interesting channel.
Love this topic and seeing your enthusiasm for both writers and pens. I have Neil Gaiman to thank for getting me into fountain pens and thus finding your channel, so needless to say I was delighted to see you lead with him.
About 30 or more years ago I shopped at a department store named "Service Merchandise". There was a display case with the MB Ernest Hemingway fountain pen (as shown in your video here) on sale for, if I remember correctly, $300. I remember looking at it longingly, but at the time it seemed an outrageous price to pay for a pen. Today that pen sells for as much as $3000. mint. It is a beauty!
Thank you for recording ths video - I'm delighted and I found it absolutely fascinating. I'm a big fan of one of Hemingway's wives, Martha Gellhorn but have been unable to find out what pen she preferred!
I am glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the inspiration! I have a bunch of photos on Martha. Weird how no one cares about the ephemera. I am very interested in these things. Maybe deep at the JFK Library in the Hemingway Papers or wherever her papers went, there could be something.
Somerset Maugham wrote most of his books and stories in longhand with a fountain pen. Each morning, he'd go through what he'd written the day before and edit it in red ink, so presumably, he had two pens inked all the time. I'd love to know what he used.
Neal Stephenson wrote the first draft of The Baroque Cycle in longhand with fountain pens. There are images out there of the pages and empty ink cartridges. The three novels combined are close to 2800 pages, so you can imagine he used quite a lot of them.
@@HemingwayJones all good! you work pretty hard on these videos. In the end I got more entertainment from this video because of your spell checker working against you :)
One of my particular bugbears is that so many traditional stationers have closed, especially in university towns. I find this mildly distressing, along with gentlemen no longer wearing ties and tweeds. My preferred pen is my Platinum 3776 in black with gold trim. I would have picked one with a silvery trim, but it wan't possible at the time. I also have an old Parker which I inherited , but sadly this has a split in the grip section which leaks ink onto my fingers.
Yes, I'd like to see a piece on Somerset Maugham. I've seen pictures of him writing longhand, but never really paid attention to the instrument that he was using.
Mark Twain used a crescent-fill Conklin and endorsed them. I own a Mark Twain model that I got at a DC Pen Show. I had to send it in for repair because the crescent wouldn't "reset" when I pushed it in to collapse the sac. When I graduated from high school in 1961 my folks gave me a Parker 51 like the one you displayed in this episode, but it was a hard-start, skippy pen, so I didn't use it. I kept using the $1.00 Sheaffer cartridge-fill school pen we were required to use for taking tests or turn-in papers (ball-points were not to be used). I lived in the DC area in the '50s; it was the early ball-point era, and there were a lot of cheap black plastic government-issued click-type ball-points around. I believe they were contracted to Fisher. The black-only paste ink in them wrote with swirls in the line, and it used to blob up at the tip, often suddenly coming off onto the paper and apt to smear. They were horrible writers. The reason that government-related documents at the time used only black-inked pens at the time is because the copier of that era could not "see" blue ink. Bic pens, introduced in 1950, wrote far better than the government-issued pens. They were generally skip-free, there was much less swirl in the line they made, and less blobbing at the tip. A box of them was cheap; unfortunately they were throw-away pens and landfills are probably full of them.
Yes! I just replied to someone above (before I read this). I got one for my sweetie since he's a big fan of Twain. Knock on wood, no problems with the fill.
Hi HJ! This journey was fascinating! All of the authors were interesting, and the pens pretty good too! My first fountain pen was a vintage Parker 51 aerometric that was picked up at a garage sale. I LOVE the 51! I now have another that is a vacumatic filler. Even have a couple of knockoff ones and I like them too! I had trouble at first finding where the nib should be positioned, but I post most of the time, and I position the clip where it is up against my hand and it is harder to turn the pen too much. I am a lefty, though, so your mileage may vary!
Nice job! Thanks for all the work that went into this one. And yes, I would like to see more in the future. As your time permits this could become a series. I would love to find out more about Douglas Adams (Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy). As an early adopter of all things digital, it would be interesting to discover if the mighty fountain pen had any part to play in Adams’ life. Keep up the good work Hemingway!
Thanks so much! I read Douglas Adams back in the 80s and I remember reading at the back; it said, “written entirely on a MacIntosh Computer.” That was new then!
@@psychedianic I did not know about Pentel, nor Hermès. I did know about his Mac Advocacy back in the early days when Mac people were often scorned or laughed at.
You may want to check out the 2001 Brian Lamb C-span interview with Shelby Foote. Mr. Foote describes his writing methods including his desk, pen and even nib changing. Very engrossing! (approx. 3 hrs. - TH-cam)
Thank you so much for searching and finding what you could about a few others and the fountain pens they used! It's such an interesting topic!!!! Typing or handwriting?
Fascinating video, thank you. With Neil Gaiman on this one (and indeed I first heard about the Custom 823 in a video he was in). It's my favourite pen for long writing sessions, so smooth. I always wondered what nib Neil Gaiman's pen had, and interested to hear it's a broad, which is in fact what I have on mine. An absolutely gorgeous nib, wet and juicy and more like a western broad line width, so probably quite a step up from the medium. I have a Custom 74 with a soft medium, and that's even finer than my Montblanc 146 fine.
Hello Mark, Not to be pedantic, so forgive me, but Hemingway’s boat is in Cuba at Finca Vigilia. The boat at Islamorada was the boat that inspired him to build his own. He did fish from it, so you are technically correct, but it’s not THE boat he is famous for and that he had for many years. Sorry to be a know it all! But I would still love to see it! And I haven’t and I have been to that Key. I did see the African Queen though!
Dear Hemingway, I’m not sure of the most appropriate way to send this missive so will take my best stab at it. I’m pretty sure this fits into areas of Dark Academia. Part is for you and part is for your lovely Helen. I’ve been under the weather lately and part is that I can’t hear. Friday evening I was watching Agatha Christie’s, “A Murder is Announced”, A Miss Marple Mystery, and because I can’t hear I was looking more deeply and these are my noticings. For you: • Handsome Inspector (could be you!) in beautiful three-piece suit (probably gaberdine) with tweedy overcoat or trench coat • Required fedora • Manly, thick turtleneck • Ever present Notebook • A mysterious letter with intriguing handwriting • An interesting pencil used by Miss Marple to make notes For Helen: • The most exquisite 1940 clothes! There were several women in this one, and each had her own style from Zoe Wanamaker’s rich hostess outfits (Check out that gorgeous purple hostess dress!!), a cross dresser, to impeccable suits with amazing details and those sexy nipped in waists and peplums,( I am sure they are the real thing and not costumes!) to dresses pushing toward the ‘50’s full skirt styles, to Miss Marple’s sweet frumpiness. Check out her long sweater! I don’t know which woman you are in this cast, but, in my opinion you at least need a gorgeous gaberdine suit if you don’t already have one! • Notice the beautiful lace pillow under the sick, older woman’s head as well as the tray of bottles on the dresser. • The jewelry is fabulous, especially Zoe’s pearls! But those might be too mature for you. Still, they are amazing. And finally, just notice the sets. They are impeccable in every detail! Okay, that’s enough! Wishing all of you a lovely day!
@@HemingwayJones Yes, great job. He has talked about using Visconti and a few others, but the 823 has been a classic for him. In his Tim Ferriss podcast he shares a sad story about the 823 that he had for a very long time and had signed so many books with. His very young son was playing with it and found an opening between the rocks of the fireplace where the 823 fit perfectly. The only way to get it out would be to rip open the entire rock wall (older type house I guess), so the 823 became "part of the house" Lol, ouch!
Very interesting video - thanks. A large number of 20th century writers would have used fountain pens some of the time, but a lot of them (Hemingway, Capote, Steinbeck, Greene, Le Guin, Faulkner etc) would have used pencils most of the time. Pencils were just easier to carry around and use. Pens were mainly used for writing letters etc. Mark Twain used a fountain pen (can't remember which, but he was paid to endorse them), and Stephen King used a Waterman Hemisphere for one of his books. There are photos of Einstein with a Pelikan (100?), Sartre and De Beauvoir with Parkers, and there is a good photo of the German writer, Hans Fallada's desk, on the web, on which he has a couple of serious 1920s/1930s Monblanc models that he used. Churchill was an Onoto user, I think. Another episode would be great, but I appreciate it is hard to find pictures!
Great presentation. I am not a writer but I like pens: fountain pens, ballpoint pens, rollerball pens, etc. Currently, I use a Sheaffer Imperial, USA made in the 1960’s. It has an unmarked nib, but I think it is a medium. Currently, It is filled with bungubox emerald ink. This is a fine Japanese ink. I must say the ink changes the writing experience.
An interesting topic, for sure, and one you do justice to. Further examples might be Graham Greene (a Parker Duofold, I think) and Sylvia Plath (a Sheaffer of some description); F. Scott Fitzgerald must have used a flexy pen, judging by his handwriting, but I have no idea of the make and model. I'm obsessed with pen anachronisms in films and tv series: modern fountain pens that lazy researchers place in the hands of historical figures. There are plenty!
Thanks very much! I am glad you enjoyed it. I tried to find something on Sylvia Plath and could only find one source that appeared dubious. Let me know if you have a link. I am fascinated by what people used. I’m not sure what it all means, but it’s interesting and you get insight.
Great video, thank you. What about the fountain pens used by Friedrich Nietzsche, John Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein? It would be interesting to find out if they had favorite fountain pens.
this is a very wonderful subject matter and video! it got me curious and i found this: Penspotting: Cary Grant Mid Late 1940's Need Help Iding Pen. politicians, actors, writers, so many possibilities. i'm mostly into poetry these days, but your name's sake drew me to look up Hemmingway again, to where i was quite surprised to discover that he started out his writing career as a poet! back to the subject at hand, a decent source for matching people to pens might actually be in old pen ads and endorsements. good luck!
My writer is an elderly man (mid 90s) who needed so initial and sign his advance directives for health care -- power of attorney and living will. I had discussed options with him, in which conversation I got marvelous stories which touched my heart. When I brought him the papers to ink, I deemed that this was a person who would understand fountain pens, so I offered him one of mine. His response: Ah! A real pen! He's my guy..
Wonderful story! Thank you!
I’m going through a life-ending illness. Your posts take me out of my circumstance. Thank you.-Thom
Thom, I am so sorry to hear this and hope that you prevail. I am so glad my videos can give you some distraction and pleasure. Wishing you all the best and thanks for being here.
Love the episode! Someone already mentioned Lovecraft, but I know Arthur Conan Doyle used a Parker Duofold and Agatha Christie was a fan of Conway Stewart. I believe Tolkien used a dip pen!
Thanks very much!
I seriously hope this will become a series - because the considered approach is lovely. Much better than just a list 😅
Thank you! I loved doing this one! I am sure I will do more. I actually have a slightly different twist that is similar, but different! I will do more of these though.
@@HemingwayJones totally looking forward to it. There is something about wearing a watch, or writing with a pen of somebody you look up to. I mean those Hemingway bubblebacks, not to mention his typewriters ;)
I 2nd this thought and looking forward towards more of it, like the Dark Academia series.
i agree, love this video, hope there's more about writers and books
oh yess dark academia series sounds amazing!!@@ferguslimhm8311
H.P. Lovecraft used a Waterman's Ideal eyedropper until he lost it at a beach in 1919. He then bought a "raven black" self-filler, also a Waterman's Ideal, which he took back to the Waterman's store so that they could adjust the feed to increase the flow.
Thanks for another fascinating video Hemingway!
This is great. Is there a citation for this? I am doing a Part 2! Maybe Cthulhu ate his pen!
@@HemingwayJones "...the raven black Waterman he finally selected was both sombre and non-ornate, with not even a small gold band encircling it"; bought after much deliberation over the course of 40 or so minutes in the "[New York] financial district of the 1920s" (pg. 57-58; Howard Phillips Lovecraft Dreamer on the Nightside by Frank Belknap Long) - I recommend this book highly as it is a nice snapshot of one man's impressions of HPL.
@@HemingwayJones The tuning stuff is from a letter written to R.H Barlow (friend and literary executor) in c.1935/6 if I remember correctly - "O Fortunate Floridian, the letters of H.P.Lovecraft and R.H.Barlow" contains many more fascinating insights, again highly recommended.
That was really interesting! I would enjoy a part 2. 😊
There is just something about the feel of a quality fountain pen that puts all others to shame. I was blessed with handwriting that fountain pens were made for; flowing but not at all bubbly. A great pen just gives you a sense of writing something world-changing, even if you are just signing timesheets. 👸🏻
The inherent beauty of writing with a fountain pen, is that you are more committed to what is being memorialized on paper. It takes much more thought and effort than simply typing.
Typing on a keyboard, yes! Typing on paper is also a commitment. But you are absolutely right, My Good Friend. Thanks for being here.
I do need to find a much drier but bright ink.
I love typing first drafts. I adore fountain pens for writing letters, yes I write letters, and for journaling. Love fountain pens and typewriters.
That was a very interesting video (as all of yours are). It makes me curious about the pen choices of my favourite writers, like James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Ursula K Le Guin, Jean Paul Sartre, Philip K. Dick or Italo Calvino. I would be happy to see another episode of "Writer's Choice".
Italo Calvino would be brilliant! I am definitely doing a Part 2. Thank you!
Mark Twain, Anne Frank’s, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Albert Einstein, Harper Lee, and Steven King are some other favorite authors. Always love seeing more on the tools authors use when creating. Thank you.
Thanks so much for watching! Part two is coming.
Samuel Clemens used a Conklin crescent filler, and even endorsed it.
Excellent point! That was very low hanging fruit that I just completely forgot about! Thanks! 😂
I'm a long-time fan since your FL days! Thank you for this video. Also a super Hemingway fan (and Dylan Thomas as well). I've been using 1945 and 1951 dated Parker “51" pens for about 15 years off and on as everyday writers. When you post the cap properly to suit yourself and your hand and get in the proper groove, the 51 writes like a dream. I went back to college to finish my degree with the two Parkers in my armory and did daily battle taking notes with them with no issues. Love them!
Excellent choices! Wow, the FL was a long time ago. Only Indy Gear was longer! All the best.
Agree: With a properly posted cap the Parker 51 is a perfectly balanced pen in the hand. And once you find your "groove" it flows across the page.
Finding out Neil Gaiman also uses a fountain pen to write his drafts like I do is kinda inspiring. The current pen I use mostly is my Jinhao X159 with an XF nib. Often writing reverse with some inks.
One day soon, you will be on my list!
@@HemingwayJones I wish, I am an just an okay writer, also not marketable to general audience for most of my stuff. Think more pulp and romance.
Still nice of you to say.
I believe he uses two pens, but with different colour inks, which he then alternates from day to day so he can see what work he did on previous day.
Thank you for this insight into the craft of writing from the standpoint of famous writers. It adds depth to the process of writing and appreciation for the beauty and even nobility of the writing instrument.
Thank you! And thanks for watching!
Hemingway Jones. I have just discovered your channel recently last week and I have to say that you are one of my favourite people on TH-cam. I thoroughly enjoy your videos and I always look forward to what video you will do next. Please keep up the good work.
Thank you so much! This is so kind and very encouraging! Al the best!
There's an interesting story about Gaiman's 823. In an interview with Tim Ferriss, Gaiman says he wrote about 1.5 million signatures with he Pilot 823.
"Then," Gaiman relates, "my three-year-old son found a place behind a cast iron fireplace in our house in Woodstock where if you just insert your father’s Pilot 823 pen, which you have found on the table, just to see if it would go in there, you can actually guarantee that without disassembling the house, we actually have to take the entire house apart to uninstall a cast iron fireplace from 1913 to get at the pen. That pen now has been given as a sacrifice to the house gods, so I need to get a new one."
Great video!
Kids! These things happen! Thanks for the great story!
That was a great interview! I think Neil said he’s using a Pilot Falcon since that happened as well.
My good friend, one of my favorite videos. Here are the reasons. 1. This wasn't just about fountain pens, it was about great writers who had amazing tools to express their art. Love it. 2. I am a MASSIVE Dr. Who fan! I have seen every episode from the old back and white to today. Love it! 3. I too have a Parker 51 from 1949 and struggling to find the edge, I thought it was my pen; but now I realize...it is just the way it is. When I find it, it is amazing.
Thanks My Friend! I am so glad you enjoyed this. Expect more like this. It is going to be a great season at the Channel.
What a great video! I love Dr. Who especially the first set of doctors. Also, if you haven’t read “Midnight’s Children” by Salman Rushdie, it is fantastic. For part 2, I would like to know some women authors who used fountain pens for writing their novels. I look forward to the next video!
Thanks so much! I am very glad you enjoyed it.
I'd like to learn about pens women writers used: Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Parker...etc.
Excellent point! I am completely remiss! Thank you. I’ll do some research. I am amazed at how little I have found on this sort of thing.
As a female writer myself, I would be very interested.
Yes!! Anne Frank introduced me to fountain pens when I was a child. 😍
I think we should all research our favorite writers’ favorite pens independently, then report back here to share. That way this comment section becomes a whole resource along with the video.
Wolf wasn’t the biggest fountain pen fan. She preferred dip pens. She was, however, a big fan of purple ink (and ink in general), specifically waterman tender purple :)
Lithub put out an extensive list of writers & authors which disclosed their choices of writing instruments: pencils, ballpoints, rollerballs & fountain pens. Gaiman was there, and his fondness of FPs. Thanks for the video.
Thanks very much and thank you for the citation!
According to an interview in The Paris Review, Shelby Foote wrote his US Civil War books using a dip pen with Esterbrooke nibs.
Love it! Thank you! Have you read the poetry of Stephen Crane? Amazing stuff.
Love this episode! Ernest Hemingway said so much with so few words.
George Orwell shared similar views.....
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.”
Last but not least.................
My biggest regret is the substandard look of the modern Parker 51. Why can't they get a better fit with the nib and section? When one buys a classic pen owned by the likes of the Queen of England one also expects a classic look to go along with it. Parker needs to clean up their act!
I break all those rules with every utterance and jotting! Thanks so much! Excellent points and a great comment.
The modern 51 can’t get it right, because it uses a nib that is more or less like present day nibs, which really is hard to hide under the hood. The original 51s were designed originally as small tubular nibs,in concert with the collector, feed, and shell(hood) to work as one flawlessly. Rather than spend a bundle to recreate the original tooling for the 51, Newell Rubbermaid chose to use a blade type nib and cover it with an approximation of the old hood. Of course in this day perhaps they could have jobbed the nib,feed collector out to the Chinese Hero Pen co, whose 51 look a likes are built either with old 40s Parker equipment, or at least more modern copies made of the original Parker that were nationalized in the late 40s. Want a classic 51, get one of the originals there are plenty to be had, many for about the same as a gold nib recent “51.” The last 15 years I have been writing with a c 1953 aerometric, there is no pen in my 100 some pen collection that writes better or smoother.
Nice video Hemingway! I was thinking Arthur Conan Doyle, who used Duofolds
I almost included him. I have a Duofold too! Part 2 My Friend!
Canadian writer Robertson Davies (1913 - 1995) used a waterman fountain pen. His personal pen, his writing chair, his typewriter and his writing desk were all donated to a large-format Chapters bookstore I helped open (and then close) located at Yonge and Eglington in Toronto. The pen was framed behind a glass case. There was a merger between the two rival large format bookstores some 20+ years ago, and the store, which cost $10-million to build, and wasn't budgeted to turn a profit for well over ten years, was closed within 2.5 years. It became a liquidation centre - and Robertson Davies' desk and chair were trashed. His pen stolen. His typewriter just disappeared. We had a fantastic children's book section, with luxurious sofas and arm chairs - all small sized for children. We had original artwork from Robert Musch's books on the wall. And we also had a real Brazilian ant farm. The ant farm was donated to the Toronto Zoo. The artwork was carefully re-housed, and the children's furniture (along with many other luxurious pieces of furniture in the store) were sold at an employee auction. I find myself thinking about that pen, and how terrible it is for someone to have stolen it.
You may find this link worthwhile:
www.thegentlemansjournal.com/article/pens-worlds-famous-authors/
I love Davies work. Such a shame about the fate of his tools! I have a book he signed and it's clear to me it was a fountain pen he used to sign it. I didn't know he used Waterman pens though. Thanks for sharing the info.
Scriptus 2024 anyone? ❤
Neil Gaiman is responsible for my first purchase of a fountain pen! And also why my first two grail pens were the L2k and the 823
Wow! That is an excellent reason to get into pens! All the best!
I appreciate all the research you put into making this video. Nice selection of writers.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you!
Excellent video! i'm currently working on a novel of my own & writing it out long hand with fountain pens has gone a long way to helping me to make more progress! Including with an 823 & a Lamy 2000 (among others, i tend to use a different pen & ink combination for each chapter as i go so that none of my pens feel left out 😂)
That is a wonderful process! Thanks so much!
ANOTHER MOST ENJOYABLE VIDEO. Well what can I say you will once again make my weekly recap.
Great stuff my friend!
Thank you, My Brother! I am glad you enjoyed it!
I'm so glad to see one of these videos where Hemingway is treated with the appropriate scholastic investigation. Most other "famous writers' pens" lists just associate Hemingway with Montegrappa and go no further. I appreciate the effort to do him justice in this regard and well done on the research.
Thank you very much! I just could never find much evidence tying him to Montegrappa. Sadly not many people seem to be interested in his pen choice, but I find it fascinating.
You might consider Rabindranath Tagore, and Indian polymath from Bengal. He wrote poetry and music (including the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh), was an accomplished artist, and founded a fascinating school, Santiniketan.
I visited the school and its small museum, and was particularly struck by some of his poems. He took the scratched out parts and connected the blobs to make a lovely picture. A plant was growing up through the poem!
He probably used dip pens, but I think you find him interesting, and I would love to learn more about him and his tools.
Love the Eric Satie music in the background. So soothing..
Thank you! One of my favorites.
An exquisite video once again. Maybe this topic deserves not only a second but even a third video.
There may be others very soon.
So glad you mentioned Dylan Thomas, he's one of my favorite poets as well. Might have to consider a Parker 51 myself now.
One of my favorites. Thank you.
I am currently writing an 8 book series and I find my work is significantly better when I write by hand first. It may be a romanticized approach, but there is a certain magic from mind to hand to pen to paper. The words flow whether tears of joy or pain upon the page. Something I struggle with pecking on a keyboard.
I admire that approach very much. I work best on my iPad Pro fully aware of my irony! Thanks for watching! Here’s to your continued inspiration and creativity.
Edith Wharton and Mark Twain both used Conklins.
Love this! Please do more 'Famous Authors & Their Pens'. I'm new to the fountain pen world but one of my favorite moments has become writing while having your videos playing. Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much! That’s really encouraging to hear. Another episode of this is filmed and scheduled soon. Thanks for watching.
Wonderful video. I’ll also mention that poet and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney used fountain pens, and he wrote several poems featuring pens, including “The Conway Stewart,” “On the Gift of a Fountain Pen,”and his wonderful poem “Digging.”
That is a brilliant suggestion. Conway Stewart makes a pen in honor of him. thank you.
Nothing compares to ST Dupont's top lines, beginning with the Olympio. Fabulous.
Yes! I have several Olympio/Orpheo pens, and they deserve more popularity and attention than they usually get. They are among my favorites!
Johnny Depp seen with a MB Hemingway, maybe added to his collection after portraying Hunter S Thompson, who had similar look on life and death with Hemingway..
How about a part 2? Stephen King, Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Neil deGrasse Tyson all use/used fountain pens.
Part 2 is a given!
Stephen King used a Waterman.
Hemisphere, I believe.
Also, copious amounts of Budweiser and cocaine, if rumors are to be believed.
Seriously!
In 1903 Twain began endorsing Conklin. They issued a limited edition Crescent Filler in his honor that is currently available.
Greetings from Panama. My name is Nelson Hernandez. I am 46 years old and, being left-handed, I started late in the world of fountain pens. I always loved them. Today I have a small collection, from Lamy (Al Star and 2 Safary) HongDian (2), Jinhao (4), MonteVerde (1), Parker Acromatic (1) and Ferris Wheel, carrusel series (2) my inks are MontBlanc and Wearingeul... little by little I am collecting and getting to know them. I Dream the Robert Louis Stevenson Fountain pen and Little Prince from MontBlanc
Quite interesting! My nomination for a further exploration of writers and their fountain pens would be John Barth, one of the pioneers of postmodern fiction, who uses a Parker 51 Demi that he acquired early in his career. He even had a picture of it (it's burgundy, Lustraloy cap) on one of his novels; one of his essays actually discussed how he got it and why he uses it.
Wonderful. Thanks very much.
Have to agree with your deduction regarding Hemingway. Occam almost certainly applies here. And you've got me thinking about my favourite authors, and what they might have used. One of the joys of the Internet is that we can search out photos easily, rather than having to spend hours in libraries (although I do enjoy that, too).
Thanks! You know, it’s not easy taking a definite stand in a video and making a call. Criticisms can come from many corners, but that is what we do on this Channel!
The one problem with the internet is that you find the same 5 or 6 photos over and over again. Most photos are behind pay walls, so people use all the same ones over and over.
I have a lot of books on Hemingway and I used those, but I would have loved to get into his papers at the JFK Library. But then, the video would have been lopsided toward Hemingway.
Thanks as always for your excellent observations!
T S Eliot used one of the Watermans from the early part of the 20th century. It was gifted to him by his mother before he left America for Britain. Now part of the T S Eliot Museum. I assume this is the pen he used to draft some of the greatest poems and essays of the 20th century. Immortal now!
I ordered my Pilot Custom 823 with a broad nib, and it's fantastic--makes big writing look amazing, and the flow is just perfect.
You have chosen… wisely!
I'm from Kenya. Please do one video on pens used by Leo Tolstoy, Chekov, Pushkin and Dostoevsky!
Hello and thanks for watching and thanks for the excellent suggestions!
Very interesting. I love your Channel Hemingway, and yes another "Writers Pens" would be great. Many thanks for your enthusiasm which is very contagious 😂😊
Thanks Brother! Part 2 of this is already filmed and scheduled!
Fascinating video! I'd like to see more like it. 😀
Thank you! Part 2 is already filmed.
I appreciate the research you did for this and it was interesting and informative. Loved this video!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you!
This was interesting, but I’d encourage you to do a part two of this video with all female authors.
There will be a Part 2, but not dedicated to any one thing. I do wish I had included some female authors here. I wasn't thinking strictly in those terms and I did look at several, but couldn't find anything definitive in the time I had for research. That is, except for Anne Frank, but her story makes me so sad, I have trouble speaking about it. I searched for a very long time for a Donna Tartt quote that she used an MB and didn't just write about them! No go. Also, I couldn't find which pen, if any, Sylvia Plath used, which I really wanted to include. Still, there will be additional opportunities.
Loved this. Yes, I would like to see more of these.
Thank you!
Very well made HJ, interesting, instructive , like this one I want to see more. Can hardly wait for number two in the series of fountain pens by famous writers
Patrick, My Brother! Thank you very much!
I really enjoyed this episode. Thank you for putting together this wonderful video.
Glad you enjoyed it! It means the world to me!
Great topic! Loved it. I have the 823 with a broad nib and it is everything you think it is. Totally agree with you on Sailor pens.
Thank you so much!
Interesting points about Ernest Hemingway. I would like to see what Churchill wrote with and Also Teddy Rosevelt.
I have a lot in Churchill. That can be done. Thanks!
Wonderful video. It's important to inspire more people to write, especially with fountain pens.
Hear, hear!
I have actually been to Kinokunia in Shinjuku: when I lived in Tokyo it was one of the places one could find books in English. Picked up my beloved copy of Le Morte D'Arthur there. Thanks for the connection with Murakami
How great is that! Well done and well lived.
Thank you for this great video, Hemingway! I look forward to what other suggestions you get, because I am sure this is a video series that can have a lot of chapters.
You got it! Thank you very much!
Love this topic and interested in what pens authors use and also famous people in general. I got the nib that Marcel Proust used to write his books with. He used a dip pen. I cannot imagine how tedious that would be and it is fascinating to think about him writing so prolifically with a dip pen!
Proust comes up in the video I am filming now! Just a mention, but yes! Thanks for watching.
Well researched well presented in friendly manner My favourite topic pens as I practice calligraphy
and thank you for brightening my
Thanks for watching!
I still need to get a vintage Parker 51. I want the Grey color with a gold cap. Great video!
Thank you very much!
can we get a video of your top ten books or authors you like?
I think I can do that sometime. Thanks!
@HemingwayJones Awesome!! I love hearing about writers and books, even poets or songwriters too ❤️🫶👍
Fantastic choice of a topic, sir ॱ◡ॱ
Many many thanks
Very intelligent presentation
Thank you! Thanks for watching.
Enjoyed this episode. Hemingway is a favourite of mine as well. Would be curious to know about the pens of choice of folk like Samuel Beckett, Virginia Woolf, Walt Whitman, Herman Hesse ... thank you for an informative and interesting channel.
Thanks so much! I’m glad you enjoyed this.
Love this topic and seeing your enthusiasm for both writers and pens. I have Neil Gaiman to thank for getting me into fountain pens and thus finding your channel, so needless to say I was delighted to see you lead with him.
Thanks so much! Mr. Gaiman is a great entry point for fountain pens.
Excellent video Hemingway, more of these please. I just thought of Adrian Stokes, Marcel Proust, Sigmund Freud.....
Do you know which pen Proust used? There is a lot I could do with him and his ideas on Memories. thanks!
@@HemingwayJones I was just looking that up. Only Montblanc pens appeared, so perhaps they know. I'm still searching.
It’s difficult finding information.
About 30 or more years ago I shopped at a department store named "Service Merchandise". There was a display case with the MB Ernest Hemingway fountain pen (as shown in your video here) on sale for, if I remember correctly, $300. I remember looking at it longingly, but at the time it seemed an outrageous price to pay for a pen. Today that pen sells for as much as $3000. mint. It is a beauty!
You had me at Neil Gaiman. I love this kind of shows! 🖋🖊📝📚
Thank you!
Thank you for watching!
Thank you for recording ths video - I'm delighted and I found it absolutely fascinating. I'm a big fan of one of Hemingway's wives, Martha Gellhorn but have been unable to find out what pen she preferred!
I am glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the inspiration! I have a bunch of photos on Martha. Weird how no one cares about the ephemera. I am very interested in these things. Maybe deep at the JFK Library in the Hemingway Papers or wherever her papers went, there could be something.
Somerset Maugham wrote most of his books and stories in longhand with a fountain pen. Each morning, he'd go through what he'd written the day before and edit it in red ink, so presumably, he had two pens inked all the time. I'd love to know what he used.
Me too. I love his work.
Neal Stephenson wrote the first draft of The Baroque Cycle in longhand with fountain pens. There are images out there of the pages and empty ink cartridges. The three novels combined are close to 2800 pages, so you can imagine he used quite a lot of them.
That’s epic! Thank you.
The manuscript was on display at the Seattle Museum of Science…..all 2,800 pages and the empty mont blanc ink cartridges used to write it all!!
Love this video so much. Such a great story to be told.
Thank you!
Thomas's porm. A child's Christmas in Wales, another great work of poetry.
Have a wonderful week! Ken
You too!
This is a really cool video. But I couldn't help but laugh at the typo at 6:26. "Salmon" Rushdie
I think spell check did me in. I cut and pasted all of their names because I mistype all the time. Oh well. I do my best.
@@HemingwayJones all good! you work pretty hard on these videos. In the end I got more entertainment from this video because of your spell checker working against you :)
One of my particular bugbears is that so many traditional stationers have closed, especially in university towns. I find this mildly distressing, along with gentlemen no longer wearing ties and tweeds. My preferred pen is my Platinum 3776 in black with gold trim. I would have picked one with a silvery trim, but it wan't possible at the time. I also have an old Parker which I inherited , but sadly this has a split in the grip section which leaks ink onto my fingers.
I wear ties and tweed, so you are in the right place! The 3776 is a lovely pen!
The only writer I have researched is Samuel Clemons, and his Conklin. Great video. I look forward to Part II.
Fully agree. Is own an 823, a 146 and a 51. I would also consider Cross Century
Yes, I'd like to see a piece on Somerset Maugham. I've seen pictures of him writing longhand, but never really paid attention to the instrument that he was using.
Mark Twain used a crescent-fill Conklin and endorsed them. I own a Mark Twain model that I got at a DC Pen Show. I had to send it in for repair because the crescent wouldn't "reset" when I pushed it in to collapse the sac. When I graduated from high school in 1961 my folks gave me a Parker 51 like the one you displayed in this episode, but it was a hard-start, skippy pen, so I didn't use it. I kept using the $1.00 Sheaffer cartridge-fill school pen we were required to use for taking tests or turn-in papers (ball-points were not to be used).
I lived in the DC area in the '50s; it was the early ball-point era, and there were a lot of cheap black plastic government-issued click-type ball-points around. I believe they were contracted to Fisher. The black-only paste ink in them wrote with swirls in the line, and it used to blob up at the tip, often suddenly coming off onto the paper and apt to smear. They were horrible writers. The reason that government-related documents at the time used only black-inked pens at the time is because the copier of that era could not "see" blue ink.
Bic pens, introduced in 1950, wrote far better than the government-issued pens. They were generally skip-free, there was much less swirl in the line they made, and less blobbing at the tip. A box of them was cheap; unfortunately they were throw-away pens and landfills are probably full of them.
I have heard about those Shaeffer pens. There is a lot of affection for them out there. Thanks for the great information and for watching!
Yes! I just replied to someone above (before I read this). I got one for my sweetie since he's a big fan of Twain. Knock on wood, no problems with the fill.
You had me at Dr
Who
... :)
Nice! Hear, hear! Who is your favorite Doctor?
Hi HJ! This journey was fascinating! All of the authors were interesting, and the pens pretty good too! My first fountain pen was a vintage Parker 51 aerometric that was picked up at a garage sale. I LOVE the 51! I now have another that is a vacumatic filler. Even have a couple of knockoff ones and I like them too! I had trouble at first finding where the nib should be positioned, but I post most of the time, and I position the clip where it is up against my hand and it is harder to turn the pen too much. I am a lefty, though, so your mileage may vary!
My Dad wrote with Parker 21 and 45, and Waterman fountain pens. I enjoy the Namiki vanishing, Pelican, and others.
Really awesome video HJ. I find it fascinating to see what tools great minds use. Pen to paper 👍
Thanks! Me too!
Nice job! Thanks for all the work that went into this one. And yes, I would like to see more in the future. As your time permits this could become a series. I would love to find out more about Douglas Adams (Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy). As an early adopter of all things digital, it would be interesting to discover if the mighty fountain pen had any part to play in Adams’ life. Keep up the good work Hemingway!
Thanks so much! I read Douglas Adams back in the 80s and I remember reading at the back; it said, “written entirely on a MacIntosh Computer.” That was new then!
I don't know about fountain pens but he liked Pentel and used a Hermes typewriter.😍
@@psychedianic I did not know about Pentel, nor Hermès. I did know about his Mac Advocacy back in the early days when Mac people were often scorned or laughed at.
@@alanpareis734 he did love new technology. He had the last laugh though, given how popular Apple products have become.
We need a part 2
It’s already filmed. Thanks!
You may want to check out the 2001 Brian Lamb C-span interview with Shelby Foote. Mr. Foote describes his writing methods including his desk, pen and even nib changing. Very engrossing! (approx. 3 hrs. - TH-cam)
That sounds very interesting. Thank you.
Thank you so much for searching and finding what you could about a few others and the fountain pens they used! It's such an interesting topic!!!! Typing or handwriting?
Thanks so much, Aubs! I am so glad you enjoyed it!
Fascinating video, thank you. With Neil Gaiman on this one (and indeed I first heard about the Custom 823 in a video he was in). It's my favourite pen for long writing sessions, so smooth. I always wondered what nib Neil Gaiman's pen had, and interested to hear it's a broad, which is in fact what I have on mine. An absolutely gorgeous nib, wet and juicy and more like a western broad line width, so probably quite a step up from the medium. I have a Custom 74 with a soft medium, and that's even finer than my Montblanc 146 fine.
Hello Simon! I am glad you are a fan of his. He is such an interesting and imaginative writer. Thanks for watching and for the comment!
H.J. have you ever been on Hemmingways fishing boat? It's in the International Sporting Goods Store on Islamorada, Florida Keys.
Bass Pro Shops - World Wide Sportsman you mean?
Hello Mark, Not to be pedantic, so forgive me, but Hemingway’s boat is in Cuba at Finca Vigilia. The boat at Islamorada was the boat that inspired him to build his own. He did fish from it, so you are technically correct, but it’s not THE boat he is famous for and that he had for many years. Sorry to be a know it all! But I would still love to see it! And I haven’t and I have been to that Key. I did see the African Queen though!
@@jbkerns the last time I was there was about 30 years ago. Name changes in the company could be expected. As well as possible slips in memory.
I hate being the guy correcting everyone. It’s still awesome to see. Thanks for letting me know.
Always a fantastic vídeo Heminway 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻. Greetings from Madrid
Dear Hemingway,
I’m not sure of the most appropriate way to send this missive so will take my best stab at it.
I’m pretty sure this fits into areas of Dark Academia. Part is for you and part is for your lovely Helen.
I’ve been under the weather lately and part is that I can’t hear. Friday evening I was watching Agatha Christie’s, “A Murder is Announced”, A Miss Marple Mystery, and because I can’t hear I was looking more deeply and these are my noticings.
For you:
• Handsome Inspector (could be you!) in beautiful three-piece suit (probably gaberdine) with tweedy overcoat or trench coat
• Required fedora
• Manly, thick turtleneck
• Ever present Notebook
• A mysterious letter with intriguing handwriting
• An interesting pencil used by Miss Marple to make notes
For Helen:
• The most exquisite 1940 clothes! There were several women in this one, and each had her own style from Zoe Wanamaker’s rich hostess outfits (Check out that gorgeous purple hostess dress!!), a cross dresser, to impeccable suits with amazing details and those sexy nipped in waists and peplums,( I am sure they are the real thing and not costumes!) to dresses pushing toward the ‘50’s full skirt styles, to Miss Marple’s sweet frumpiness. Check out her long sweater! I don’t know which woman you are in this cast, but, in my opinion you at least need a gorgeous gaberdine suit if you don’t already have one!
• Notice the beautiful lace pillow under the sick, older woman’s head as well as the tray of bottles on the dresser.
• The jewelry is fabulous, especially Zoe’s pearls! But those might be too mature for you. Still, they are amazing.
And finally, just notice the sets. They are impeccable in every detail!
Okay, that’s enough! Wishing all of you a lovely day!
Thank you so much! What a king, magical, and lyrical comment. Thank you!
Huge Neil Gaiman fan, and he's the reason I peaked into and then fell down the fountain pen rabbit hole :)
Kendall, what a wonderful entryway point! Awesome and welcome. Did I do him justice!? I hope so.
@@HemingwayJones Yes, great job. He has talked about using Visconti and a few others, but the 823 has been a classic for him. In his Tim Ferriss podcast he shares a sad story about the 823 that he had for a very long time and had signed so many books with. His very young son was playing with it and found an opening between the rocks of the fireplace where the 823 fit perfectly. The only way to get it out would be to rip open the entire rock wall (older type house I guess), so the 823 became "part of the house" Lol, ouch!
Very interesting video - thanks. A large number of 20th century writers would have used fountain pens some of the time, but a lot of them (Hemingway, Capote, Steinbeck, Greene, Le Guin, Faulkner etc) would have used pencils most of the time. Pencils were just easier to carry around and use. Pens were mainly used for writing letters etc. Mark Twain used a fountain pen (can't remember which, but he was paid to endorse them), and Stephen King used a Waterman Hemisphere for one of his books. There are photos of Einstein with a Pelikan (100?), Sartre and De Beauvoir with Parkers, and there is a good photo of the German writer, Hans Fallada's desk, on the web, on which he has a couple of serious 1920s/1930s Monblanc models that he used. Churchill was an Onoto user, I think. Another episode would be great, but I appreciate it is hard to find pictures!
I’ll definitely be doing more of these. Don’t worry! Thanks for watching and for the kind words.
Great presentation.
I am not a writer but I like pens: fountain pens, ballpoint pens, rollerball pens, etc.
Currently, I use a Sheaffer Imperial, USA made in the 1960’s. It has an unmarked nib, but I think it is a medium. Currently, It is filled with bungubox emerald ink. This is a fine Japanese ink. I must say the ink changes the writing experience.
An interesting topic, for sure, and one you do justice to. Further examples might be Graham Greene (a Parker Duofold, I think) and Sylvia Plath (a Sheaffer of some description); F. Scott Fitzgerald must have used a flexy pen, judging by his handwriting, but I have no idea of the make and model. I'm obsessed with pen anachronisms in films and tv series: modern fountain pens that lazy researchers place in the hands of historical figures. There are plenty!
Thanks very much! I am glad you enjoyed it. I tried to find something on Sylvia Plath and could only find one source that appeared dubious. Let me know if you have a link. I am fascinated by what people used. I’m not sure what it all means, but it’s interesting and you get insight.
Well done! 🎉
Thank you!
Great video, thank you. What about the fountain pens used by Friedrich Nietzsche, John Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein? It would be interesting to find out if they had favorite fountain pens.
this is a very wonderful subject matter and video! it got me curious and i found this: Penspotting: Cary Grant Mid Late 1940's Need Help Iding Pen. politicians, actors, writers, so many possibilities. i'm mostly into poetry these days, but your name's sake drew me to look up Hemmingway again, to where i was quite surprised to discover that he started out his writing career as a poet! back to the subject at hand, a decent source for matching people to pens might actually be in old pen ads and endorsements. good luck!
Thank you and thanks for watching!
I'm still using my Conway Stewart n° 286 ,liver filler, 1940's. And some other one's of my collection