Parker 51 Version Question

[Lady Onogaro]

My husband is reading Indignation by Phillip Roth. In it there is this quotation:

"I had seen her using her Parker 51 fountain pen to take notes in class--a brown-and-red tortoiseshell pen--but I had never before seen her handwriting or how she signed her name with the nib of the pen, ... ."

So he asked me about the pen, and researching it, I don't find that it came in brown-and-red tortoiseshell. Does anyone know if it did?

Also, the book is set in 1957; would owning such a pen be a sign of wealth?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Laura N]

No tortoise; the 51 pen bodies were made out of solid-colored Lucite to handle the 51 ink.

I would guess that owning a 51 in 1957 would not be uncommon among those who hadn't switched to ballpoints. Parker sold tens of millions of 51s and I'm sure it was already the best-selling fountain pen in American history by that time. The cheaper 45 wasn't released until later, nor fancier 75. I suspect owning a 51 in 1957 America would mark you as a person of solid, upwardly mobile middle-class values, not on the cusp of the new and trendy, but not trying to stand out in terms of demonstrating your wealth.

I wasn't born in 1957, but my mother had a 51 back then. I wonder when she switched to the Jotter.

[Lady Onogaro]

Thanks so much, Laura.

When my husband said the book referenced a tortoiseshell Parker 51, I said, "I don't think that can be right, but I don't know a great deal about the Parker 51," so I went to Richard Binder's site and the Parkerology site, and it seemed one of the attractive features was the fact that it came in so many colors of plastic. There are metal versions on those sites, but no tortoiseshell.

But then again, I thought, maybe there were other premium versions that those two sites did not mention. It seems a strange mistake for Roth to make. I wonder what pen he was thinking of.

[Laura N]

Thanks so much, Laura.

When my husband said the book referenced a tortoiseshell Parker 51, I said, "I don't think that can be right, but I don't know a great deal about the Parker 51," so I went to Richard Binder's site and the Parkerology site, and it seemed one of the attractive features was the fact that it came in so many colors of plastic. There are metal versions on those sites, but no tortoiseshell.

But then again, I thought, maybe there were other premium versions that those two sites did not mention. It seems a strange mistake for Roth to make. I wonder what pen he was thinking of.

Ah, yeah, I've always wanted a Flighter.

I don't know what pen he was thinking of. There were Sheaffers (beautiful pens) that had a tortoise body and a metal cap. It didn't look like a 51, not really, but if you don't know pens, maybe you'd get that confused. There were also vintage Pelikans with the brown tortoise body and metal cap -- I'm not sure the year of those, however. And there may be other Parker models -- I'm ignorant of most.

Probably like all of us, when it comes to things we didn't pay much attention to, Roth didn't remember the details exactly. And just assumed it was a 51, because a 51 is just the iconic fountain pen, especially of that time and place. But to me, of all time. (She runs and hides.)

[welch]

Who would have owned a P-51 in 1957?

Depends on their wealth.

- I used a Sheaffer "school pen", since we were just learning to write

- High school and college students probably would have owned a Parker 21; received a 51 for graduation

- A Parker 51 was for professionals -- doctors, lawyers, etc, who had begun working. Guess at price?

(a) Esterbrook: about $2
(2) P-51: $10 - $12, single pen in lustraloy cap. Various gold-plated caps or FP / pencil sets? More.

I haven't read "Indignation", but Roth graduated high school about the 1950s. Wealthy young woman, perhaps, and Roth uses the 51 to indicate her wealth?

[Laura N]

Who would have owned a P-51 in 1957?

Depends on their wealth.

- I used a Sheaffer "school pen", since we were just learning to write

- High school and college students probably would have owned a Parker 21; received a 51 for graduation

- A Parker 51 was for professionals -- doctors, lawyers, etc, who had begun working. Guess at price?

(a) Esterbrook: about $2
(2) P-51: $10 - $12, single pen in lustraloy cap. Various gold-plated caps or FP / pencil sets? More.

I haven't read "Indignation", but Roth graduated high school about the 1950s. Wealthy young woman, perhaps, and Roth uses the 51 to indicate her wealth?

That's great to hear, because you were there. Now, here's one data point only, but my mother had one, and she wasn't wealthy, nor were her family. She wasn't a doctor or lawyer either; she was a social worker before having children. But my mother's non-wealthy family appreciated a Parker, I think on the "buy quality, buy once" theory. And if you look at your prices, an Esterbrook is a lever filler with a steel nib, while a Parker 51 had a better filling system and a gold nib. So there's some extra value in the higher price, or maybe just more glitz and glamor, but anyway.

My mother's 51 is a 1947, and was a graduation gift. You mention that as well -- were 51s a popular graduation gift of that time? (Like the Cross pen and pencil set of the early 1980s.)

[fountainpenkid]

His mistake is quite odd. He might be like Fitzgerald was: totally unconcerned with small points of factual correctness to the point that his literary sense of wanting the image of a "brown-and-red tortoiseshell pen" overrode his general knowledge. Another possibility is that he has pen amnesia, and just threw in the one pen name he knew. Of course it could have been a bad edit--he may have changed the pen's identity and forgotten to change its description. I haven't read anything by Roth though (nor do I know much about him), so these might be off base.

[pajaro]

There are some makers of custom 51s. Were they active in the 1950s? I don't know.

I was a kid in the 1950s. My father had a 51 set. Other relatives had 51s. Working class people. I didn't get one until I got out of college in 1970. I am still using it.

[welch]

Who would have owned a P-51 in 1957?

Depends on their wealth.

- I used a Sheaffer "school pen", since we were just learning to write

- High school and college students probably would have owned a Parker 21; received a 51 for graduation

- A Parker 51 was for professionals -- doctors, lawyers, etc, who had begun working. Guess at price?

(a) Esterbrook: about $2
(2) P-51: $10 - $12, single pen in lustraloy cap. Various gold-plated caps or FP / pencil sets? More.

I haven't read "Indignation", but Roth graduated high school about the 1950s. Wealthy young woman, perhaps, and Roth uses the 51 to indicate her wealth?

That's great to hear, because you were there. Now, here's one data point only, but my mother had one, and she wasn't wealthy, nor were her family. She wasn't a doctor or lawyer either; she was a social worker before having children. But my mother's non-wealthy family appreciated a Parker, I think on the "buy quality, buy once" theory. And if you look at your prices, an Esterbrook is a lever filler with a steel nib, while a Parker 51 had a better filling system and a gold nib. So there's some extra value in the higher price, or maybe just more glitz and glamor, but anyway.

My mother's 51 is a 1947, and was a graduation gift. You mention that as well -- were 51s a popular graduation gift of that time? (Like the Cross pen and pencil set of the early 1980s.)

The top-line Parker (or Sheaffer) pens would have been "gift pens". Something special for graduation or another important event. When my dad was assigned to a carrier in the Pacific, my mom gave him a Parker Vacumatic. Tony Fischier, at http://www.parkerpens.net/parker51.html, mentions that in the '60s Kenneth Parker wanted a "gift pen" because the company could not survive selling the inexpensive Parker 45 and Parker Jotter. Thus: the Parker 75. (The Parker 61 was intended to replace the 51, but the design flaw in the P-61 capillary-filler is a separate topic.)

[Jerome Tarshis]

In my family, and in the Twenties and Thirties and Forties we weren't sprouting lawyers just yet, people liked Parker pens and thought they were worth paying for. You could save your pennies. A whole lot of things cost relatively less back then. In my elementary school, educated middle class but definitely not wealthy, many kids had Parker 51s. Fewer people could afford to travel back then. With the money they weren't spending for airfare and hotel rooms and restaurant meals, they could afford a Parker 51.

[david i]

Might have been a Parker Vacumatic




-d

[Jerome Tarshis]

First, I'd like to thank David I for an entertaining guess. Accompanied by handsome photographs. I agree that a Parker pen with what appeared to be a tortoise-plastic barrel could be a Vac. I could wish it were so.

Second, or the bad news: I was taking notes in college in 1957. It strikes me as extremely implausible that a college girl in 1957 would have been using a Vacumatic. Lovable pens, but belonging to an earlier time. And Philip Roth was born before I was, so he would have seen the progression from the Vac to later Parker pens. Let's perhaps leave this as an observation (by the author) that needn't be explained.

[jar]

What pens you owned seemed at the time to be family specific, there were Parker families and Sheaffer families and even Waterman families but no one talked about the latter in polite company. Remember that the Parker "51" came out in 1941 and so buy 1957 it was possible someones "51" could well be a ten year old hand-me-down.

But the familial tradition sometimes skipped generations. My Grandfather loved Sheaffers but my Dad Parkers. Since grandparents tend to spoil grandkids I received some of Gpops hand-me-downs. It was also a sign of youthful independence that I did not use those Parkers Mom and Dad used. Luckily as I got older I learned to appreciate even Parker pens (and Waterman and Wahl ones too but don't tell anyone) and was even fortunate enough to get some hand-me-downs from my parents as well.

But 'No, Virginia, there really isn't a tortoise shell "51".'

[rbrummer]

Since apparently Philip Roth either doesn't know or doesn't care too much about his fountain pen details, I say we take this thread in Davd's direction and instead propose what the pen was (or should, or could) have been. My vote: she's using a hand-me-down golden brown Sheaffer Triumph.

[Scrawler]

I do not know about the US, but in the UK social status in school was to some extent set by the pen you used. In 1960 the Parker 51 was right at the top of the pecking order. I was severely jealous that my great uncle in the US head sent my sister a P51 and me a Sheaffer. At the bottom end of the status ladder was Platignum and Osmiroid.