The Leadhead's Pencil Blog began in 2011 as an online update service for the author's first book, The Catalogue of American Mechanical Pencils. It is now a standalone resource for vintage and antique mechanical pencils, currently featuring 1,200 articles. This Volume picks up where Volume I left off and includes original research, extensive images and patent drawings for the second full year of the blog, covering "The Big Four" of pencils - Wahl Eversharp, Eagle, Autopoint and Sheaffer - as well as other highly collectible brands, such as Tri-Pen's Triad, W.S. Wicks, Parker and Conklin. Also included are many obscure and forgotten brands that have not been written about in the decades since they first appeared on the market. Part encyclopedia and part travelogue, The Leadhead's Pencil Blog brings together the pencils, the history behind them, and a wonderful community of enthusiasts whose shared information has helped build this indispensable reference.

Articles from 2021 about the history and collecting of American Mechanical Pencils, written against the backdrop of an American society in crisis.

The Catalogue is a comprehensive guide to antique and vintage American Mechanical Pencils. In addition to articles detailing the history and varieties of pencils produced by more than 250 companies, the book includes a price guide and general articles on collecting, repair and restoration.

A comprehensive history of Autopoint, one of America's most prolific manufacturers of mechanical pencils

WELCOME TO THE END OF THE WORLD! Disease-K has decimated the world leaving its victims shambling homicidal maniacs. And nestled along the warm Gulf waters sits Gulf Shores...the last outpost of civilization. With looters and thieves preying on the shocked survivors, it's up to the retirees and bank tellers, phone repairmen and charterboat captains to put the town back together. THE SHADOWS ARE GATHERING OUTSIDE OF TOWN! There, in the sands and marshes of the Gulf of Mexico, the citizens of Gulf Shores along with scattered military units, a downed Air Force pilot, and a lone Coast Guard cutter form the last line of defense against the amassing horde of the infected marching its way toward the sea destroying what's left of humanity along the way. As summer gives way to the fall and the cold winds blow off the sea, Gulf Shores draws the line and prepares to make the... THE LAST STAND ON ZOMBIE ISLAND!

F. Scott Fitzgerald named it, Louis Armstrong launched it, Paul Whiteman and Fletcher Henderson orchestrated it, and now Arnold Shaw chronicles this fabulous era in The Jazz Age. Spicing his account with lively anecdotes and inside stories, he describes the astonishing outpouring of significant musical innovations that emerged during the "Roaring Twenties"--including blues, jazz, band music, torch ballads, operettas and musicals--and sets them against the background of the Prohibition world of the Flapper.

The Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers were involved in nefarious activities including prostitution, drug smuggling, sexual abuse of children, and murder conspiracy. The Rajneesh Chronicles explains this behavior--and why the cult that committed the first act of bioterrorism in the U.S. was trying to cultivate a live AIDS virus. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, widely known as the "sex guru," fled India in 1981 and came to settle on a ranch in central Oregon, where he and his followers established the illegal city of Rajneeshpuram. In their effort to preserve the city, the Rajneeshees attempted during the 1984 election to take control of the Wasco County government by poisoning two county commissioners and over 700 potential voters in The Dalles, the county seat, with salmonella—the first act of bio-terrorism in U.S. history. Armed to the teeth with semiautomatic weapons, they threatened to defend the city to the death against any governmental intrusion, and hatched a plot to assassinate a U.S attorney. When the commune finally imploded and authorities arrived on the scene, they discovered that the Rajneesh nurse who had cultivated salmonella bacteria in the commune’s biological warfare laboratory was also trying to cultivate a live AIDS virus—which deranged group leaders clearly hoped to unleash on the rest on the world. The Rajneesh Chronicles is a collection of in-depth investigative and analytical articles published in Oregon Magazine covering the entire period from the time of the cult’s arrival in Oregon in mid-1981 to its dramatic disintegration at the end of 1985 (with an introductory chronology that extends the story up to the present). While most press treated the cult’s antics as a humorous sideshow typified by the Bhagwan’s dozens of Rolls-Royces, editor in chief Win McCormack and other of the magazine’s writers systematically exposed the full range of the Rajneeshees’ depraved behavior, including their involvement in prostitution and international drug smuggling, sexual exploitation of children, abuse of homeless people they imported into Rajneeshpuram to register as voters, and the use of brainwashing techniques bordering on torture. The tale of the Rajneesh has become an amorphous legend few inside or outside of Oregon actually understand. The Rajneesh Chronicles fully illuminates the shocking reality behind that legend.

In over 1700 color photos and 145 patent drawings, along with an informative text, this book introduces readers to a wide range of mechanical pencils. Included among them are well known examples created by what the author defines as the big four of American pencil manufacturers--Autopoint, Eagle Pencil Company, Eversharp (Wahl Eversharp), and Sheaffer--as well as rarely seen models and unusual variations. Explore mechanical pencil history from 1851 to the late 1970s and the various mechanisms made to move and lock lead in place. Also included is a startling chapter on trick pencils. These compact wonders, first documented in a mid-nineteenth century patent, provide a wide range of extra features with clever attachments, including magnets, lighters, penknives, rubber stamps, and sheets of writing paper hidden in the shaft. Also included are suggested values for many of the mechanical pencils displayed and discussed. For anyone with a passion for American ingenuity and technological innovation on the small scale, this book is for you.

A sequel to Fountain Pens Vintage and Modern, this work provides information on pens. It includes 150 colour photographs of 2,000 vintage and modern pens. It includes chapters on the USA, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands and Japan, and provides information on the histories and models of the major and minor manufacturers.