My Esterbrook

The Esterbrook Pen Company was founded in 1858. It was the sole pen manufacturer in the United States. It began with the sale of nibs (steel pen points one dipped in ink). With the development of the true “fountain” pen (ink carried in the barrel housing that flowed through the pen point), the company reached its zenith in producing 600,000 pens a day. In 1967, the company added the Venus Pencil line. The company went bankrupt in 1971, as fountain pens finally gave way to ballpoint pens. Surprisingly, Esterbrook was resurrected in 2014, and is enjoying a comeback of the original pen design.

Below is a picture of my Esterbrook fountain pen which I received from my parents as a graduation gift from high school in 1956. It is sitting atop my “new” Olympia 256 portable typewriter, which is a 1956 model, exactly like the one I also received at the same time as my Esterbrook, but which I had let go when electrics came along. So, they are together once again. I have written with my Esterbrook now for nearly 62 pears! I write with it every day. I still marvel at the phenomenon of thoughts becoming words on the page through the hand and this “instrument of ink.” There is something in this experience that is different than computer keyboards producing thoughts on the screen. It has something to do with intimacy.