A Century of Autopoint

Great book on The Autopoint pencil and the company that made them. The book is beautiful and contains a wealth of information. Well worth the investment if you are a fan of mechanical pencils.

This is my Autopoint pen/pencil "bible". When I need to identify a particular pencil, it's got just about every Autopoint, Realite and Realpoint model illustrated, in color, including the hard-to-find fountain pens of Autopoint and Realpoint (and the curious Autopoint fountain pens which show up periodically with "Welty Pen Co." printed over the original Autopoint or Realite barrel imprint). It has excerpts from a number of the patents applicable to those products. It includes a variety of "model shop" or "prototype" pencils of those brands, plus some ephemera and some ancillary products of those companies. And every time I start reading the somewhat sad saga of Charles Rood Keeran and his relationship to each of these brands (and some related companies), it's really hard to put the book down. The book even has a lot of information about the general mechanical pencil industry in the 1920's, and how Autopoint began to prosper despite the competition. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in mechanical pencils and fountain pens. Full Disclosure: As a long time Autopoint collector, and someone well known to the author, I was invited to review a preliminary draft of the first portion of this book. I was so impressed with the "story behind the pictures" that I dropped everything I was doing at the time, and gathered digital pictures of my pencils and fountain pens for possible inclusion in this comprehensive treatise. It is now a permanent part of my library, and a reference source I check frequently.

This is a remarkably thorough history of an interesting small pencil company.. The Autopoint Company grew from a small business into a minor industrial enterprise in the 50 years after World War I. After the rise of ball-point pens, Autopoint pencils became less popular and after several reorganizations and sales, it has been operating as a small business for the last 40 years.Since Autopoint was an early user of plastics and the Bakelite Company owned Autopoint for some years, this book sheds light on the early history of the plastics industry in the Chicago area.For collectors of mechanical pencils, this book is a wonderful guide filled with bright, clear illustrations of Autopoint pencils. It shows the evolution of the Autopoint product line.Robert L Bolin, Emeritus Professor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

A Century of Autopoint covers a whole lot more than just Autopoint pencils. The entire history from the earlier Eversharp pencil, through Autopoint, and on to Realite and Dur-O-Lite, and even the Keen-Point pencil are described. All of the "trials and tribulations" are detailed, too. With images of advertising, the patents involved, and beautiful color photographs of the various pencils, Veley's book is just as pleasing to the eye as the depth of his research will be for pencil collectors.

Richard Keith says this book is a “must have” for the veteran vintage mechanical pencil collector, as well as the beginner. It contains an comprehensive amount of information, including a wealth of high quality pictures of Autopoint and related pencils and the associated patents. Like Jon’s other books, this book is very well written.

The author is one of the most highly regarded members in the collectible writing instruments community. His knowledge of vintage mechanical pencils is unparalleled. All his books are in my personal library. I highly recommend this book.

Excellent book for information and reference. Plenty of high quality color photos to look at as well. A great addition to anyone interested in vintage pencils

This is a MUST have if you into Autopoint and Pencils in general. Amazing book from well respected guy and author within writing instruments community.