Dark Side of the Pencil

The innocent pencil, a symbol of artistry and early childhood scribblings, has also been ascribed a darker side over the years.

Back in the 1980s, Stephen King wrote a novel The Dark Half, in which a writer called Thad Beaumont is at war with his alter ego. Beaumont, who usually wrote his stories using a typewriter, also wrote some tales under the pseudonym of George Stark.

When he was writing as Stark he always used a pencil instead of his typewriter.

Beaumont decides he needs to shed his alter ego, but Stark appears in physical form and begins to use the pencil as a weapon against the flesh-and-blood author.

The spooky pencil in King’s story, according to James Ward’s Adventures in Stationery,  was based on the Berol Black Beauty pencil which no longer exists.

You can also find out more about the fascinating history of pencils at the Berol website.