Santa is bringing the Joe Nickell book so I have to wait awhile on that. The "social life" one sounds fun.
Santa is bringing the Joe Nickell book so I have to wait awhile on that. The "social life" one sounds fun.
Yazeh (November 25th, 2020)
At your advice I bought The Social Life of Ink and am well through the first section. Totally enjoying it! Thanks for the tip. Several others in this thread now worth checking out as well I'm sure. Thank you Yazeh.
Yazeh (November 28th, 2020)
Most welcome, tooth.
I would say, this book has a very organic structure. It's not written in a chronological way.....
Just wanted to post an update, I recently finished Social Life of Ink.... I read parts of it twice. Well researched, well written.
The structure for those interested:
1) Part I - The Ball Point and the democratization of pen from Biro to Bic .(Adventures in Hungary, Argentina, US, France and ending at Caran d'Ache...
2) Part II - Gutenberg and printed book..... Lots of fun history with adventurous in Texas and Utah....and recreation of old printing ink
3) Part III - China and ink sticks - Philosophy, poetry and calligraphy a journey in China up to Tibet and back to Edmonton, Canada
4) Part IV - Ink and the sacred, sensual, sensuous and blasphemous - From Samarkand to Herat, and Tunisa - From Omar Khayyam to the Blue Koran.....From Iron gall to Indigo.....
5) Part IV - Returning home - Creation of "First novel" - Don Quixote - Death of handwriting thanks to ball points - Revival of fountain pens - Inks - From tatoos to Nathan Tardif, from Goulet to Binder, to Barthe....
I am presently reading
Joe Nickell - Pen, Ink, & Evidence: A Study of Writing and Writing Materials for the Penman, Collector, and Document Detective.
I have to admit that while, at times, I couldn't put Ted Bishop's book down, Joe Nickell's, oeuvre is not as enticing as of yet. But I haven't finished it yet.
I believe both books are complimentary.....
I would be curious to know, how other readers found these works.....
Im in the middle of Joe Bishop's book at the moment. It is a good read. I can also recommend Phillip Henscher's The Missing Ink which offers a perspective of ink, pen, and writing in what I suggest is a more personal (he does digress into his personal life at times as well) and less historical context.
Yazeh (December 17th, 2020)
I just received Nickell's book in the mail the other day. I'd forgotten I ordered it. lol I haven't read it yet, but my impression was that it that it wasn't so inviting. It's more coffe-table format than I had expected, but it looks like there might actually be some good tidbits in it and the photos are many and good. Looking at the paper section, that is certainly an excellent overview and re-view. So I'm expecting the same overview style for the rest of it. We'll see. I can't get to it yet. I'm currently reading "Paper;Paging Through History by Mark Kurlansky".
Yazeh (December 17th, 2020)
"... I'm currently reading "Paper;Paging Through History by Mark Kurlansky".
The BBC show about writing talked about papyrus and how nice it was to write on using a reed. I found myself wondering what it would be like to write on it with a modern fountain pen.
I've written with reed. It's quite fun. All you need to do, is use a thin bamboo garden stake and cut it appropriately and voilà. But papyrus no. that I haven't tried. Though I won't be surprise if Ole has a stash hidden somewhere
I got this book recently after it was mentioned here — it’s a really interesting book with history of inks, writing, writing materials, and writing instruments. The section on inks takes an historical perspective and also covers ink problems and ink containers — it’s not encyclopedic, by any means, but a good read nonetheless. I got mine “used” (actually pretty much brand-new condition) on Abebooks.com for a very reasonable price.
Yazeh (December 27th, 2020)
I found the part on ink fascinating but incomplete. It goes more in depth with XIXth century ink production (Stephens/ Carters etc). But when it comes to history of Iron gall ink, it's sketchy. Bishop's book delves more into it with fascinating ink recipes of the orient...... But if our focus is mostly XVII - XX century, Western civilization then it is more than adequate
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