Mark Twain's Conklin Crescent fountain pen

Here is a very early antique Conklin fountain pen, the same kind that Mark Twain owned and used. It is a lovely early smooth, non-chased hard rubber, slip-cap Conklin pen with an add-on solid sterling art deco clip. The pen is in extraordinarily pristine condition, in the original box, and has the early fissure feed, not the more common later Christmas Tree feed.

The Conklin Pen company first began about 1891 when Roy P. Conklin of Toledo Ohio started experimenting with pens and self-filling systems. In 1901 he patented his Crescent filler. The Company first began producing pens by 1897 and continued until the end of World War II. These Crescent style pens were Conklin's most successful line and they were made from 1901 until the late 1920's.

Nearly every serious vintage fountain pen collector is aware that Mark Twain used and endorsed the Conklin fountain pen. But ask them exactly which Conklin Pen Twain owned and they will be hard pressed to tell you. After all, I am fairly certain this fact has never been published before.

About a year ago, I invested heavily in a small document collection. None of these documents were signed nor written by Mark Twain, but many of these papers came from the Ashcroft estate, and most of these papers were addressed to Samuel Clemens. And one of these was from the Conklin Pen Company. What a find! I was turning cartwheels for a week.

Ralph F. Ashcroft was for a short time, a business manager for Mr. Clemens. Miss Isabel Van Kleeck Lyon, Clemen's personal secretary from 1902 to 1909 would later marry Mr. Ashcroft, and this would be the beginning of a rather messy scandal. Miss Lyon is important in Twain history because many of Twain's best quotes and musings come from her personal journals that she kept during hr tenure. Miss Lyon at first was basically a maid and Mrs. Clemmen's personal secretary. When Twain's wife, Olivia Clemens, died in 1904, Miss Lyon slowly took over Olivia's business roles and soon had the responsibility of signing checks and legal documents for Clemens. Eventually this turned out to be a huge mistake. The details are not clear, but part of the scandal had to deal with Ashcroft having Lyon take advantage of Clemens bank accounts, or perhaps it was as Miss Lyon claimed, an intense jealousy of Clara and Jean Clemens, Twain's daughters after Mark Twain gave Miss Lyon the house in Redding Ct. as a wedding present. When the financial questions came to light, Miss Lyon was quickly dismissed, even though she was making arrangements for her honeymoon. Clara Clemens was particularly angered over the situation and lawsuits were filed. Ashcoft and Lyon were married and had left to England on their honeymoon, but it looked as if they were fleeing legal action. Upon landing in England, the newlywed Mrs. Ashcroft, cut short her honeymoon and returned to New York and filed a suit of her own for defamation of character. Eventually Twain dropped the suits and the situation was settled privately.

However, In 1970 an unmailed letter from Twain to William Dean Howells was unearthed. In the letter Twain scolded himself for being so gullible and blind to the constant pilfering of his assets from someone he implicitly trusted. It was clear that the scandal hastened Twain's ill health, He died a year later in 1910 at the age of 75.

Miss Lyon, when in Twain's employment was an ideal secretary. She kept meticulous records and always kept Twain organized. She was rather lovely, small and frail, but a very strong willed woman. Basically she was a carbon copy of Twain's deceased wife, Olivia. There were rumors of an engagement between Mark Twain and Miss Lyon in 1907, but these were always denied. Today Twain researchers wonder about these two. After Miss Lyon left the employment of Clemens she kept hundreds of original documents or copies of much of Twain's business during her tenure and these have made their way from collector to collector until I ended up with a few of them, including the Conklin letter. Before you ask, NO the letter is not for sale. I merely show it here as evidence for the model of Conklin pen that Twain owned.

If you have trouble reading the reduced image of the letter it reads:

It has always been assumed that Twain was paid for these endorsements. I doubt this now.Included in the collection I bought were two letters written by Paul E. Wirt in Wirt's own hand to Mark Twain (these will be published in my soon to be released book) and in those letters it is clear that Twain was not paid at all, at least not for the first of the two Wirt endorsements All Twain received was a few new pens. But of course..those were Paul Wirt pens.

By 1905 Twain was dictating most of what he published. He said in a few letters to Joseph Twitchell, during this time. "I have been a prisoner to the pen for most of my life. I wouldn't pick one up again to sign the death certificate of my greatest enemy." However, Twain did infact use his Conklin pen nearly every day. When Twain dictated he would often break into dramatics, and often the poor secretary would be confused about what Twain said for the manuscript or what he said for her benefit. Thus, Twain would sit in his bed and make corrections with his pen every morning. Below is a 1905 photograph of Twain making corrections with his Conklin.

Twain only used the Conklin Pen for about three years, from 1904 to 1907 before he turned to another pen maker....but that is another story... Twain used this pen for revisions to his Autobiography and all of his correspondence during this time. Before The Conklin, Twain used a Wirt pen, and before that a Duncan MacKinnon Stylogrphic pen. Before the MacKinnon, Twain used another very early fountain pen. I have no documentation yet to prove which pen this was, but I believe it was a Newell Prince Protean fountain pen. Twain hated that pen and flung it out his window.

If you make your way to the Mark Twain Boyhood museum in Hannibal MO, be sure to look for the pen display presented to the Museum by members of the Pen Collectors of America. I was part of this committee and donated some documents for the display.