Contributor Biographies #16

 

Katie Hill

Hello, pen friends,

My first fountain pen (are there any other kind?) was Pelikan student pen that I acquired when I was an exchange student to France during my junior year of high school. (Dates are withheld to protect the innocent.) I still adore that pen although it has been retired from regular use due to a severe leaking problem.

Since then I feel that I have been on a quest to "replace" that pen because it holds a lot of special meaning to me and writes like a dream. My collection grew a fair amount while I lived in Paris, France for five years immediately following my graduation from the University of Washington in Seattle. Thankfully for me, pens were easy to find and very affordable.

I have an eclectic professional background, having worked as the managing director for a communications agency in Paris before working in international marketing for a software company in Seattle. I took a short break from a full-time career and went back to school for a law degree, which lead me to work as corporate counsel for a non-profit foundation serving foster children, also headquartered here in Seattle. Most recently I was employed doing strategic business development for an Internet company. I am now temporarily "retired" after being part of the e-commerce economy slowdown. The silver lining in all of this is that I have much more time now for writing with my fountain pens, going for long walks with my dogs, and working in my yard.

While I was an undergraduate and in law school, fountain pens made taking class notes and writing exams a little less onerous. I love the connection that fountain pens make between the thought process and expression on paper.

I don't have a theme to my collection, but rather have a magpie approach - I am drawn to a pen's writing characteristics, of course, but a unique body or finish will also attract me.

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Qamaruzzaman Amir (aka qman)

G'day

Was born Jan 1, 1974. Fifth baby to be registered in Singapore in that year. Held my first fountain pen in junior high for art class. And have been in love with them since then. Unfortunately, coming from a slightly disadvantaged background, Ii was unable to explore this part of my interest.

A major crossroad in my life was being awarded a scholarship: left for BC, Canada to study at the Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific (quite a mouthful). Came back after 2 years, to serve military service before reading Physics in the local university.

Graduated, joined teacher's college and am now a Physics teacher in a local high school. A childhood dream fulfilled :) With a comfortable income, i can now indulge myself with fine pens

My passions in life: Reeta, Physics, Mountains, Guitar and now: Fountain Pens. Looking forward to preparing for my GRE Physics sometime next year, 2 years away from a serious study of Physics is way too long. Hoping to do my Master's in Physics, Education or Political Science. Can't wait to put pen to paper and write Schrodinger's equation with Waterman Florida Blue.

Reeta and I are planning to travel the world, teach wherever we may be. It's so good to be alive isn't it?

Cheers,
qman

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Jan M. Levine

I've probably been posting enough in the last month to cause some to wonder who "JML" is. Might as well say who I am.
My name's Jan M. Levine.

One of my earliest memories of my childhood in Brooklyn, N.Y., is of my efforts to figure out how a green-bodied Shaeffer fountain pen worked. I'm pretty sure I killed it, but I can still remember what it looked like and how I got the comb out. And I remember my Dad's chrome Cross pens, the sterling Jotter he let me use, and the plastic Big Red ballpoint pen I used in high school.

I'm a tenured law professor, and I teach legal research and writing. I've been doing that for 17 years. Started as an adjunct in Boston when I was in practice, and I have directed writing programs since then at the Univ. of Virginia, Univ. of Arkansas, and now at Temple Univ., in Philadelphia. I critique student papers all the time, and although I now do it mostly on computer (and I'm writing a book about that), those pens get used a good deal. My Lamy 2000 fountain pen and ballpoint got me through law school, and I still love 'em. Tools of the trade. In the case they sit next to Cross Townsends (chrome series and sterling series), Aurora Talentums, Pelikan 730's, and other Lamys. Guess I go for black and silver -- never liked gold. Same in watches and folding knives.

I love SciFi and fantasy, as well as WW II military history. I have a 12-year-old son who likes to go to DC and Florida because we can go to Fahrney's and Levenger's, and who is probably the only kid in his school to always have a pen in his pocket (my wife & I won't let him bring his fountain pens to school).

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Stuart Williams

I was born some 41 years ago in Bloxwich, a small town (some say village) in the Midlands of England on the edge of rural Staffordshire, where I still live. Bloxwich is over 1000 years old, and my maternal ancestors have been here since at least 1738. It is part of the Borough of Walsall, birthplace of Jerome K. Jerome.

In the late 1970's I studied Professional Photography at college, and for the past 15 years have been in charge of the Photographic Unit of a Borough Record Office (a local history centre). The work involves location record photography, reprographics, publications, exhibitions, printing and processing, audio-visual work, advising the public and lecturing to local groups as well as managing a collection of many thousands of historic photographs.

I have had many hobbies over the years - photography, naturally (using Canon F1N gear currently); astronomy (and its history) plus space science (as a volunteer for The Planetary Society and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society); geology; computers; reading; and latterly using fountain pens. I also enjoy country walking and museums.

As far as reading is concerned, my first love was and is science fiction and fantasy from H.G. Wells and Jules Verne to the latest authors from the UK and US. I particularly enjoy Arthur C. Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein, Tolkien, Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock. I am presently getting into recent translations of Jules Verne classics, which are much more complete. I run a Science Fiction and Fantasy reading group at my local library and am presently practising short story writing in hopes of publication - my 'style' is 'Steampunk' - if you don't know what that is, feel free to ask!

Having said that, I also enjoy English military historical novels - Sharpe and Hornblower especially - plus Shakespeare, Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie's Poirot and the Ramses historical novels of Ancient Egypt by Christian Jacq. I would like to try some Hemingway when time permits.

I had not really considered pen collecting until I discovered Pentrace, so this has opened up something of a new world to me! I own a Parker Duofold International FP (in Jasper, Medium nib); a red Waterman Phileas FP (medium nib), which I now use at work; a stainless steel Parker Sonnet FP (fine nib) and a stainless steel Sheaffer No-Nonsense FP with Italic F nib. My favourite ink is the discontinued Parker Penman Mocha brown, a stock of which I use with various papers for personal correspondence. Everything else goes through my Hewlett Packard Pavilion PC (Athlon 650), Word 2000 and Epson A3 Stylus Photo EX!

Pentrace.com seems a particularly pleasant place to hang out on the Net, so here I am!

To sum up with a literary quote:

"I am a batchelor," said he, "and being of a sociable turn I cultivate a large number of friends."

- Mr. John Scott Eccles, 'The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge'
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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Michael Richter

After regularly visiting and enjoying Pentrace and sometimes even contributing to it, I thought it would be about time to introduce myself to the other "Pentracers" and write a little Bio.

Well I'm 23 years old and live in a rural area in Nothrhein-Westfalia Germany. I study Food-Chemistry, Chemistry and think about adding Pharmacy as well (Gotta make my own ink someday I hope.....).

After I always like all sorts of pens, especially fountain pens as a kid, my serious interest in collecting fountain pens rose, after my dad gave me his old (late sixties) Montblanc 32 Fountain Pen he'd used many years for writing the grade-reports in school (now they are computer printed and he though I'd had better uses for it - and I actually wrote all of my high-school finals with this pen either with Parker Quink Brown or with the also 30 year old Pelikan Blue-Black ink form a big bottle he got with his pen which had become more a grey-green color over the years, but is still 100% usable).

I lived one year in a small town in Iowa in the United States which became a second home to me, so somehow Sheaffer pens are now one of my favorite brands.

I collect both vintage and new pens from most brands, but my main interest are vintage and new Sheaffer pens and vintage Parkers.

I use all of my pens, so I'm now trying to buy more vintage pens because the mostly offer better writing qualities than new ones.

I also collect fountain pens inks and have about 100 different colors (both cartridges and bottles) and keep track of them in a sampler book (inks are cheaper than pens...).

Together with my girlfriend who likes pens as well (and definitely bought more than a "normal" person would need after she got to know me!) we have around 100 pens (mostly fountain pens).

Some of my all-time favorites (I DON'T have most of them unfortunately) are old Duofolds,Pastels, True-Blues, Vacumatics,51s and 61s Sheaffer's Balance (especially the ebonized pearl), Touchdowns, Tuckaways and Triumphs and pre 30's Waterman silver filigree's (which I still hope to own one some day). Right now my favorite every day user is a Vista Blue Parker 61 Custom capillary filler with "custom" vista blue ink.

Other interests beside pens are movies, music and travelling

I'm really glad that such a place as Pentrace exists and enjoy the nice way people treat and help each other with information and wish the best to all of them.

Michael Richter

 

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