Before ideas became files, prompts, and pixels, they were written on paper. Novels were created page by page by hand, and world-changing agreements were concluded with a signature.
In the midst of it all was a tool so common that it rarely received much attention: the pen.
Yet, history shows that some of the world's most significant writers and statesmen had a very conscious relationship with the tools they wrote with. Waterman and Montblanc, for example, appear across literature and political history. Not just as brands that later named pens after famous people, but as writing instruments they actually used.
Stephen King and the world’s finest word processor
When Stephen King wrote Dreamcatcher, published in 2001, he chose something that might have seemed old-fashioned even then. He put aside his computer and wrote the novel by hand with a Waterman fountain pen.
It was not a small writing exercise. The handwritten work ended up as a novel of over 600 pages.
King subsequently described how writing by hand changed the pace of his work. The process became slower, and this affected his relationship with words and language. In the author's own note to Dreamcatcher, he also gave his Waterman a description that today almost sounds like a comment on our digital age: "the world’s finest word processor."
The interesting thing is not necessarily that Stephen King preferred one pen brand over another. The interesting thing is that one of the world’s most successful authors consciously chose a slower tool because the very limitation gave him something different.
When the pen becomes part of the process
King was far from the first author with a close relationship to his pen. H. P. Lovecraft left behind not only the literature he is known for today but also an enormous correspondence of tens of thousands of pages.
In his posthumous material, one finds a person with a very specific relationship to his writing instruments. Waterman fountain pens were among the pens he used, and details such as the pen’s nib, the ink’s flow, and the color of the ink were important.
For an author like Lovecraft, the pen was not a random object on the desk. It was part of the work. When the ink ran out, the pen was not replaced. It was refilled.
A Montblanc in Kennedy’s pocket
The role of the pen naturally extends beyond literature. Throughout the 20th century, Montblanc, for example, appears in connection with a number of historical figures and events.
In June 1963, US President John F. Kennedy visited West Germany. The visit is primarily remembered for his famous speech in West Berlin, but during the trip, a much smaller event took place in Cologne.
Kennedy and West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer were to sign the city’s Golden Book. When Adenauer was without a pen, Kennedy had his own at hand: a Montblanc Meisterstück.
It is a small detail in a major historical event, but it tells something about the role a pen once had. Before the phone became the object one never left home without, a good pen was precisely that for many people.
The pen that signed the end of the Soviet Union
Almost three decades later, the Montblanc name appears in connection with the end of a completely different period in world history.
On December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation as President of the Soviet Union. That same evening, the Soviet flag over the Kremlin was lowered for the last time.
Accounts of Gorbachev’s farewell describe a Montblanc as the writing instrument he used in connection with his signature.
A pen, of course, does not create history. But it is remarkable how often a pen is on the table at the moment history is being written down.
Why write by hand when everything else is faster?
Today, our relationship with the pen is different. We write emails on the computer, messages on the phone, and can generate several pages of text in seconds with artificial intelligence. The efficiency is difficult to argue against.
Perhaps that is precisely why the slower process is again interesting.
When writing by hand, text cannot be moved around with a click. A phrase cannot be regenerated. No notification appears in the middle of a sentence, and there is no autocomplete that tries to guess the next word. The thought must be formed before it can end up on paper. Stephen King already had a computer when he started Dreamcatcher. He had access to the faster tool. Yet he chose the pen.
More than 25 years later, that choice somehow feels more relevant than ever.
One pen. Different ways to write.
This is also part of the idea behind A PEN COMPANY. When we designed THE PEN, we did not want to invent another proprietary refill format that made the pen dependent on us. Instead, we built it around refill systems that already exist and have proven their value over decades.
Therefore, THE PEN can be used with refills from Pilot®, Waterman®, and Montblanc®. This means you can choose between different writing experiences without changing the pen itself. Pilot for the precise and simple everyday pen. Waterman from the manufacturer of the pen Stephen King chose when he wrote Dreamcatcher. Or Montblanc from a name that has been present at some of the 20th century's historical moments.
But the point is not really what name is on the refill. The point is that it can be changed. A good pen should not have an expiration date just because the ink does. It should be able to follow its owner through notebooks, workplaces, addresses, and ideas.
Perhaps even through an entire working life.
Sources
Stephen King, Dreamcatcher, Scribner, 2001. Author's note describes working on the novel by hand and using a Waterman fountain pen.
S. T. Joshi & David E. Schultz (eds.), Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters, Ohio University Press. Lovecraft’s correspondence and descriptions of his writing habits and instruments.
The Christian Science Monitor, "The Fountain Pen Makes Its Mark", February 27, 1990. Contemporary journalistic article about fountain pens, Waterman, Montblanc, and prominent users.
Montblanc’s historical archival material about the Meisterstück and John F. Kennedy's visit to Cologne in 1963.
Historical and journalistic accounts of Mikhail Gorbachev’s resignation as President of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, and the Montblanc pen associated with the signing.
