Don Whitney on Fountain Pens
Photo from UU..edu
Dr. Don Whitney serves as Professor of Biblical Spirituality and Associate Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. I happen to be a Southern alum. However, I unfortunately left right as he was making the move. Many know Don for his writings - helpful works like Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life and Praying the Bible. Others will know that he’s a serious fountain pen ambassador. Dr. Whitney graciously agreed to let me interview him for this site. A transcription of the interview is below.
KPL:
I’ve heard this same story numerous times - just to start on a lighter note - you’re beginning a seminary class, you’re teaching in a local church (you actually taught in my brother-in-law’s church up in Indiana) and you look over, you look at someone in the front row, you look at their pen, and you say something along the lines of - unless it’s fiction - hey, that’s not a pen. Let me show you a pen. And you then launch into a primer of sorts on fountain pens. Is that legend? Is that true?
DW:
Yeah, there’s some truth to that, and I do it a particular point when I’m teaching something. I’m talking about meditation questions based on Philippians 4:8 - whatever is true, whatever is honorable, and so forth. And I turn each of those eight things there into meditation questions. One of them is “what is excellent?” And I say, “We often use excellent just to mean very good. You know, that was an excellent pizza. But it’s actually a comparative term, comparing two of a kind. And one excels the other. There’s an old hymn called “Love Divine, All Love Excelling.” All true love is good - whether it’s parent for child, friend for a friend, or man for a woman. But God’s love excels them all. In the same way, I’ll say, “This is a pen.” I’ll grab one from a guy on the front row that’s using a Bic. Then I’ll chuckle and pull my Pelikan M1000 out and say, “This is a pen.” Sort of a Crocodile Dundee kind of thing. This excels this. Two of a kind - but this one is excellent compared to that one. I use it to both illustrate a point and share a few words about fountain pens.
KPL:
That sounds good. That helps. It has an illustration component to it, too.
DW:
Yes. I’ll kind of shame them out. I’ll call on somebody that can I know can take it. And I’ll hold up mine, and say, “This is a man’s pen. This gets ink out of a bottle. I think I’d be ashamed to use this thing over here.” Then I have to go, “It’s ok. He can take it. People in his class, go, “Ah, bless his heart. He just got embarrassed by the professor.”
KPL:
That’s great. Well, how did you get started with fountain pens? Could you talk about your history and progression through the hobby?
DW:
The first I can remember I was in the tenth grade and Papermate came out with its first fiber-tip pen, the Flair. They still sell it. And I remember I had all ten colors. I just enjoyed pens, different inks, and so forth. Then the next I can remember about it is, when I went to college, at some point it became my habit to buy a little $3 Sheaffer school pen, cartridge pen, in a blister pack. I'd buy one of those when I bought my school supplies and books every semester. So I collected. I'd get a different color just about every semester. So I used those in college. I used those in seminary. And then, I don't have a clear memory after seminary how often I used them. But I was married early in seminary. Not too long after seminary, I'm pastoring. My wife got me a very nice Parker Centennial for Christmas gift or anniversary gift, and I just wrote the stuffing out of that thing. And then in ‘85 when my dad died, I only took a couple of things back with me to Chicago, where we lived at the time. One of them was his - his boss had given him a Parker 75 sterling silver fountain pen and rollerball set. I took that. So now I have one pen that uses black ink and one that uses blue ink. And so I kinda get the idea different ways I can use them for different things, the different ink choices, and so forth. And so gradually, it went on from there.
Then I don't remember how I got the next two or three, but then in ‘95, when I went to the seminary and started - that's when I started traveling on weekends. And also, in Kansas City - I was at Midwestern for 10 years - there is a pen shop there in the Crown Center, called Pen Place - still there. I started going there and getting a few pens. They would restore old pens, vintage pens. They had somebody they'd sent them out to. When I was traveling on weekends, I would often go to flea markets or garage sales or antique malls and get vintage fountain pens on the cheap. And bring them back and have these guys restore them. And then I got tired of paying more to get them restored than I did for the pen. So I learned to a do a little of this myself, mainly the lever fillers. So I started getting vintage pens, and also eBay is around, so I'm starting to get a few on eBay, vintage pens that I can get great bargains on.
So over time, I ended up with a lot of pens. I don't collect pens. I use them. I'm not trying to get a collection of any particular brand or any particular style or any particular year or anything like that. I only get pens that I want to use. And plus I give them away. They're great gifts - especially for someone who's in ministry, who's writing. They're functional, they're small - it's not collecting juke boxes or ‘57 Chevys. You can often get them very inexpensively. When people know you're into them, they'll often give you pens. And it snowballs over the decades.
KPL:
Well, why would you recommend a good pen, and what would you argue are their benefits?
DW:
Well, they just write better. A Volkswagen Beetle and a Mercedes will get you the same place, but one is a lot more comfortable. Of course, there is a dramatic price difference there. But if you can get the same kind of ride as the Mercedes but with just kind of one step up, in terms of cost, that's considerable. If you write a lot, like I do, that makes a difference. You know, your tools matter. I'm a writer. I've written nine books. I argue that anyone in ministry is a writer. You're gonna be a good one or a bad one. You're writing sermons. You're writing lessons. You're writing bulletin content. You're writing Power Point content. You're writing website content. And whether you use a fountain pen or not, if you're in ministry, you're a writer. For me, I've always enjoyed pens. I like to write with my hands. It's one of my tools. A workman wants good tools. And furthermore, for someone who is a professor, I do a lot of grading. And nice pens can make a tedious job a little more pleasurable. I might say, well I haven't used this ink in a while or I haven't used this pen in awhile, and I get a little pleasure out of something that is otherwise rather tedious. So it writes better. If you're writing all day, your hand doesn't cramp. You don't have to press down. If things are as they ought to be, the pen just flows. So it's just more enjoyable. You get different line variation using the different pens. I really like flexible pens and italic pens for that reason. And you have infinite varieties of inks. It's an area of life that gives me enjoyment and satisfaction and pleasure that I can't get with a ballpoint pen or a keyboard.
KPL:
Well, how would you recommend someone get started? Do you have any tips for the beginner - for that guy in the front row?
DW:
The best online source right now is a placed called GouletPens.com. You're probably familiar with that. It's enormous. It has literally 100s of videos and blogposts. They have them for your first fountain pen, if you're a newbie. They will guide you in terms of what you need to know at this point, how you can get started, what kind of pen. And one of the most common recommendations right now is the Pilot Metropolitan. Pilot is a Japanese company that's been making pens for over 120 years. So they make great pens. I think you can them for 12 or 13 dollars now. They write great. They're not that expensive. And the think about that Metropolitan - even a pen just 12 or 13 dollars. You take care of it, you'll use it for the rest of your life perhaps. And a nice quality pen - literally, I'm using one that my dad used. My grandson can use it. It may need some refurbishing at some point, but just like a watch, it can be used for generations. So that's another gratifying thing. My dad's pen never leaves my desk. So every time I use it, I think of my dad. I hope to give that to my grandson. You know, what a great thing. Actually, it's not like collecting something you put on the wall that gathers dust. It's something you actually use. It's beautiful and meaningful. And it doesn't take up a lot of space. And if you know how to do it, it doesn't necessarily have to cost a lot of money now. Just like cars. You can buy a half-million dollar car. And you can buy - I've seen advertised - a Montblanc 149, literally covered in diamonds. And they're a hundred and something thousand dollars. That's what we call a collectible pen. No one would buy that to use it - even though you could use it, and it would work great. It would decrease in value if you actually put ink in it. If we're talking about what we're calling "user pens," you don't have to spend a hundred dollars. You don't have to spend fifty dollars. The Lamy Safari is a plastic pen, but with a great, German engineering on that. The wonderful thing about them is that you get all these great nib choices, that you don't often get in other pens at that price point. And if you take care of it, you'll use it for years and years and years. To me, it's a no-brainer.
KPL:
Do you want to talk a little bit more about your favorite pens, your most precious, your most used? Maybe that Parker is one of those.
DW:
Well, that Parker Duofold Centennial has sentimental value because my wife gave it to me, and it was my first nice pen. And I used it for so many years as my only pen. My dad's pen, of course - I've mentioned the sentimental value. My daily user is the Pelikan M1000. I like the size. I have big hands. I like big pens. But I had some custom work done on the nib. I like - I mentioned - flexible nib pens, because of the line variation they give me. If you think of the Coca-Cola script logo, and thick and thin line variation. I like that. If you know how to do it, and with the right kind of pen, you can write like it. Large Pelikan nibs are about the most flexible out there in terms of common production, modern production. So I've had the American nib-guru John Mottishaw of nibs.com out of California customize it to make it a little extra flexible. So that pen is in my pocket every day. In fact, I've actually worn out one barrel and cap and a former student - in fact, who's one of the best known fountain pen repairmen in America right now. And I remember when I showed him the first fountain pen he ever saw in his life. He was a student here. And now he's a famous fountain pen restorer. He has some connections with Pelikan in America, so he saw my pen, and the barrel was worn out, the cap was cracked, a dog had chewed on it years ago, but I couldn't bear to part with it, because it wrote so great. And he got a new barrel and cap for me. So I'm on my second one. So this has been in my pocket every day - I guess almost 25 years or so. So that's my desert island pen, if I could only have one.
Now probably my favorite one to write with is one from the mid-20s. It's a Waterman 7. It's kind of a large pen. But back in those days, they made what are called "wet noodle" nibs - extra flexible. This is still the day when in business, people would go to business school and part of business school was ornamental penmanship. Real fancy, where they'd turn letters into birds and all these curly Qs come off of them and other decorations. So you learn that kind of thing, and that was how people corresponded in business. And very flexible nibs helped that, and about that time, carbon paper was introduced, and that's the first time they were able to make copies of something. But you needed a real stiff nib, so very quickly most fountain pens went over to a very rigid - we'd call a nail. It's like writing with a nail - very stiff nibs. So I have one of these from the 20s as I said. When I'm writing something very special, I'll get that out and use that guy, because it gives you the John Hancock-looking line variation.
KPL:
Well, the website that I've put together is largely geared toward pastors. Would you talk for just a few minutes about the benefits of using a fountain pen in one's devotional life, which you've written a lot about, and ministry work in general?
DW:
I have a little book called Simplify Your Spiritual Life, and the chapters are just two pages long. And one of those chapters is "journal with a fountain pen" - the benefits of sometimes pulling away from the keyboard. Some people focus better by using a fountain pen, or a pen, when it comes to journaling. The tactile feel of it sometimes is just more pleasing. Sometimes you can do it in a place maybe or in a position where you can't use your laptop, and it's just a change of pace, for one thing. Some people feel it's a little more intimate, and I'll leave the keyboard for work, and email, and things like that. As far as the devotional life, it's going to be personal preference. Most of the time, I journal on a keyboard, because I can do it faster and print it off easier. But sometimes, I just want to use my pen, or I'm in a place where I don't have my laptop, and I want to write something, and so l will use my fountain pen and the same size of paper that I'll print out for my journal.
KPL:
What about for ministry work, for preaching prep, that sort of thing. Have you used fountain pens for that, and would you commend that for pastors?
DW:
Yeah, I was reading a book on writing, and I forget which one it was. I'm reading one now by Bret Lott, who is a believer, a Southern Baptist in South Carolina. He's a written a number one New York Times bestseller. I don't remember if it was him or if it was John McPhee. But one of those talked about how, when he gets stuck in writing, it helps to switch to a fountain pen and just a piece of paper. And that change of pace often unblocks the writer's block. That's one use in preaching for some people. But in ministry in general, hardly a week goes by that someone doesn't comment on my penmanship. And nobody's born with good penmanship. Just like no one is born playing the guitar or playing the piano. It's something you have to intentionally learn. Well, in my early thirties, my handwriting was illegible. And so I found a little book on penmanship - a workbook - that's not in print anymore, although there's a new one out that you can get at Goulet Pens, that's very good. They were 10, 15 minute do-it-yourself lessons. And I went through those ten, and when I was finished, I said, "You know, unless I'm in a big hurry, this is how I'm going to write." And so even if I was copying down someone's phone number, it was practice, if I was intentional about it. And within six weeks, it became natural penmanship. And then the way I stayed in conscious practice was ... the church I was pastoring at the time wasn't huge, and I made a commitment to write a three-line birthday note to everyone on in the church, whether they were one or 101. So once a week, I would sit down and do that. And actually for that purpose, I got a disposable calligraphy pen. It was double-headed. One end was one size, chisel point, and the other end was a fatter size. And so I get more line variation. I wanted something a little broader than my fountain pen at the time could do. So that was my practice - intentional, writing those - a part of of every week's routine. But I could make it something a little special by giving attention to penmanship and practicing. And you know, I've been gone for there 24 years now. People still tell me that they have them, how much they meant to them.
And for general ministry purposes, I ask my students regularly, “Except for special occasions, when was the last time you got a personal, handwritten note or letter?” And you know what most of them say? Never. Never. They're in their 20s. They never - except for special occasions. They never got a handwritten letter or note. Well, if someone is in ministry, if you just write a three-line note, that you can write as fast as an email almost - just three lines. Say, "Hey, I'm glad you visited our church on Sunday. We're so delighted you came. We'd love to visit with you in the future. I hope to see you again." Something that quick. Three lines. Number one, you can be sure they'll read it, because they never get anything like it. And second, today, it's the height of personal touch - that you actually did this with your own hand. Anybody can send an email. Everybody gets scads of spam every day. Right? So that email is nothing special anymore, but a handwritten note gets people's attention. It speaks of personal touch in a way that no email will do. And if you took the spam email, an email from the President of the United States, and an email from your spouse, and you print them off, and you tape them to the wall and stand back ten feet, they all look the same. And, they all came out of your printer. But you write a handwritten note. It's distinctive. They realize you actually touched this. You handled this yourself in the process of sending this to them. It doesn't look like anything else they get in the mail. There's a personal aspect to it that impresses people - even if your penmanship is almost illegible. They will be impressed. Even if they can't read what you say, they will be impressed that you took the time to write the note. So that's what ministry is about, right? It's personal connection to the people - personal relationship. So use handwritten notes, whether you get a fountain pen or not. Use handwritten notes for the glory of God and for the sake of the kingdom.
KPL:
That's great. You've inspired me to get back to writing notes to guests again. I did that back in the day, but I kinda got past it when we grew.
DW:
You know, there were a number of presidents that were famous for that. President Reagan, who would do that. Well, I think all presidents pretty much have done that. And what a special thing! And Dr. Mohler is really good about that. I have a little file folder. When I get one from Dr. Mohler, I save that. Multiple biographies will be written about this man. Here's stationery with his name emblazoned on it, and his autograph on it. And even if it's just two or three letters, two or three lines. I have a number of them. When I get notes from certain people, I save those things. It can be used for great benefit.
KPL:
Just to follow up on that. Did you get him into fountain pens or did that pre-date you coming to Southern?
DW:
Photo from Baptist Press
No, you know I'm not sure exactly how. I don't know that I've ever asked him about that. But it's very consistent with his persona. You know, John MacArthur is a big fountain pen guy. Steve Lawson is a big fountain pen guy. There are a number of guys who are. I've already told you my story. I'm more into vintage pens than these guys are. Jason Allen is another - big into fountain pens. I really enjoy the vintage pens. You can make them look and write like they did in the 20s or 30s or 40s or 50s. And that was the golden age, and there are still so many of them out there. I would encourage your readers or listeners there to ask their grandparents if they have any old fountain pens. They'll probably look up and say, "You know I may have. I probably quit using one in the 50s. I've got in the back of a drawer, maybe, of an old desk. And in most cases, it can be restored and then, what a treasure to be able to use something your grandparents used back in the 40s or 50s? There are still millions of them out there, because everybody used pens in those days. Everybody had one in their pocket. There weren't computers. People used pens even more. They had to have them, so they were everywhere. Then when they quit using them, they put them somewhere. But in those days, they weren't disposable. We think of a pen today, we think of a nineteen cent Bic that you got out of a mug at a bank somewhere, and you throw it away. In those days, they were often trimmed in gold. They were valuable. People sometimes used them like accessories. They would put them in their outside pocket instead of a handkerchief or something like that. People didn't throw them away when they quit using them. There are still millions of them out there.
KPL:
I just pulled out a Parker 51 that I got out of my mom's drawer after she died. I haven't used it for probably three weeks, and I've got that Diamine Oxblood in it, and it just writes like a dream. It’s a great pen.
DW:
The most popular fountain pen of all time. They made a million and a half of those every year from the late fifties til the seventies. And it's the only one in one of the famous museums in New York, because it's just kind of a classic design. It's the only pen in there. It's a great first vintage pen for somebody. They made so many different colors and barrels and caps, that you can find an aluminum cap or black or blue barrel, fully restored and ready to go, and it's not going to set you back very much. It's gonna write for the rest of your life.
KPL:
I had to get this one restored, but it wasn't that expensive. Who's the student you were referring to?
DW:
His name is Tim Girdler. He's over in Maryland. He's in ministry. Also is a schoolteacher. But on the side, he restores fountain pens. There is kind of an East Coast nib guru. And a West Coast nib guru. The one on the west coast, I mentioned earlier. And the east coast nib guru (Richard Binder) has sort of made Tim is protege, and so he takes him to all the big pen shows, and Tim sits at his side and takes pens in and does a lot of the repairs and learns from one of the masters.
KPL:
Any last thoughts or words of advice? This has been really great. I really appreciate it.
DW:
Well, just to borrow the motto from Retro 1951 pens, "Life's too short to use an ugly pen."
KPL:
Thanks so much. I hope I get to meet you down the road. I appreciate your books and ministry, and I'm glad I got to connect with you a little about this, because you definitely have a fountain pen legend that runs and around and precedes you. So, thanks a bunch.
