My Life in Pencils

Many years ago， before the dawn of the word processor， I worked at The New Yorker at a job called collating， where I had to copy legibly all the changes on a piece of writing （from the editor， the author， the fact checker， and the proofreaders） onto clean page proofs， which were then enclosed in a Plexiglas cannister and shot via pneumatic tube to a higher floor， where they were transmitted by state-of-the-art fax to the printer， in Chicago. （That comma is necessary because we used only one printer， R. R. Donnelley Sons， and they were based in Chicago.）

很多年前還沒有文字處理器時，我在《紐約客》雜志擔任校對工作，我必須把文章中需要改動的地方寫在樣面清單上，這些需要改動的內容是寫在一張張的樣單上，有的是編輯寫的，有的是文章作者寫的，有的是檢驗員寫的，還有的是校對員寫的，然后這些改正好的樣張被放入樹脂玻璃罐中，由氣動管推到上部的平臺，最后由當時最先進的傳真機輸送到打印機上，打印機在芝加哥。（這個逗號很有必要，因為我們只有一臺打印機，是 R. R. Donnelley Sons 品牌的，該打印機位于芝加哥。）

It was a medieval sort of job—a copyist or scrivener—and I did it for only one year， which was lucky for everyone， because my handwriting is the second-worst in the office. My boss at the time， who had grown humpbacked in the service of the magazine， had exquisite penmanship， but a light touch， and sometimes his marks did not transmit， and the typesetter would complain. So an effort was made to solve the problem by supplying the collating department with No. 1 pencils， which have a softer lead than the standard test-taking No. 2 pencils and therefore make a darker impression. I got used to the feel of the softer lead， and a pencil snob was born.

這個工作的操作方法有些落后——完全是機械式的模仿抄寫——所以我只做了一年就不做了，這對我的同事來說是個好消息，因為我的字寫得很差，是辦公室中排名倒數第二的。我的頂頭上司，因為長期在雜志社工作，背都駝了，不過他的字寫得非常好，不過我還是要提一下，有時候他的字也不怎么看得清楚，以致排字工人都要抱怨。因此校對部門必須要有質量最好的1號鉛筆，這樣字跡才會比較清楚，這種鉛筆用的鉛比本來在用的2號鉛筆的要軟，寫出來的字的顏色就比較深。我后來就習慣用1號鉛筆，從此我對鉛筆的要求就比較高了。

When the small stationery stores in midtown began to go out of business， our office became a customer of one of the big office-suppliers， which eventually stopped carrying No. 1 pencils. Writing with No. 2 pencils makes me feel as if I had a hangover， so I started buying my own pencils （somewhat grudgingly）. One Christmas， I asked for No. 1 pencils， and received a gross of Dixon Ticonderogas （“The World’s Best Pencil”）. I thought twelve packs with twelve pencils each would last for years， if not the rest of my career. But the point of each pencil， after being sharpened down about an inch and a half， would break off when I bore down on it. The entire column of lead in every pencil was shattered. I had gotten a bad batch.

當市中心的小文具店里沒有貨時，我們找了一家比較大的辦公文具供應商，我們就這樣成了他們的顧客，可是這家供應商后來也沒有1號鉛筆了。 用2號鉛筆寫字讓我覺得很不踏實，所以不得已我只好自己買鉛筆。有一次圣誕節(jié)的時候，我到處問有沒有1號鉛筆，后來 Dixon Ticonderogas （“世界上最好的鉛筆”）回復我他們那里有1號鉛筆。我想12包，每包12支，這樣的量足夠我用上幾年，至于能不能用到我退休之前那還不知道?？墒敲恐сU筆削了大概1.5英寸后，鉛筆頭就斷了。鉛筆里那一整根鉛芯都碎了。我買到了次品貨。

Someone at the office suggested I try a mechanical pencil， but I found it soulless. For a while， I was scraping along with four art pencils when a fellow pencil enthusiast， browsing on pencils.com， discovered that the Blackwing—black， with a distinctive flat eraser—had come back on the market. Devotees of the Blackwing had been paying up to forty dollars apiece for them after they were discontinued， in 1998. I received a box of twelve Blackwings， and I got hooked. The lead is ungraded， but it is definitely softer than a No. 2， and very expressive. The Blackwing motto is “Half the Pressure， Twice the Speed.”

我的一個同事建議我用一種機械鉛筆，不過我覺得用這種鉛筆寫出來的字缺乏生氣。有一段時間，我只能很節(jié)省地用4支藝術鉛筆來寫字，那時，另一位鉛筆愛好者在 pencils.com 鉛筆網上發(fā)現 Blackwing 鉛筆——那是一種比較黑的，帶有平的橡皮擦的鉛筆——可以在市場上買到。1998年 Blackwing 鉛筆淡出市場后，曾經有 Blackwing 的粉絲用最高40美金一支的價格買這個品牌的鉛筆。我得到了1盒12支鉛筆，心情非常激動。鉛筆并沒有明確的型號，不過它的筆芯顯然比2號鉛筆要軟，寫的時候非常流暢。Blackwing 的座右銘是“更少的壓力，加倍的速度?！?/p>

Therefore it was with great enthusiasm that I attended a party this week， at the Art Directors Club， to celebrate the revival of the artisanal pencil： the Palomino Blackwing and the Palomino Blackwing 602. The host was Charles Berolzheimer， of Cal Cedar， a sixth-generation pencil-maker. He was dressed in shades of pencil lead. Hundreds of pencil enthusiasts were there： drawing， graffiti style， on big white sheets of paper， adding to small communal notebooks， creating do-it-yourself Thaumatropes， experimenting with the camera obscura and the camera lucida. One woman wore two Blackwings in her hair.

我非常期待參加這周的藝術導演俱樂部聚會，慶祝優(yōu)質鉛筆重振旗鼓：Palomino Blackwing 鉛筆與該品牌602型鉛筆。聚會主持人是來自于 Cal Cedar公司的 Charles Berolzheimer，該公司是一家鉛筆制造商，已經有6代人的生產歷史。 他穿著鉛芯顏色的衣服，上百名鉛筆愛好者參加了聚會：在大幅白紙上畫畫，涂鴉，或在留言本上寫幾句話，用自己的風格拍攝照片。還有一名婦女在頭發(fā)上插了兩支Blackwings鉛筆。

A time line of the pencil covered one long wall， and of all the lore and storied names attached to the pencil in general—Faber， Eberhard， Dixon， da Vinci， Thoreau， Borrowdale （the original graphite lode in England）—and the Blackwing in particular—Stephen Sondheim， Chuck Jones （the father of Bugs Bunny）， and John Steinbeck were aficionados， as well as Vladimir Nabokov and Faye Dunaway—and all the ancillary products that arose from the pencil—the sharpener， the eraser crimp—my favorite fact from the pencil party was this： Every pencil is a sandwich. All these years， I have been wondering how the lead got inside the pencil. It turns out that pencils are made from slats of corrugated wood about the size of a Hershey bar. The graphite is laid in the grooves， another slat is glued on top， and then the sandwich is sawn into individual strips， which are sanded， painted， fitted with ferrules and erasers， and there you have it： delicious Blackwings.

長廊的墻壁上是關于鉛筆發(fā)展歷史的介紹，每支鉛筆都有自己的歷史淵源與故事——Faber， Eberhard， Dixon， da Vinci， Thoreau， Borrowdale（英國最早的石墨礦開采者）——Blackwing 尤其引人注目——Stephen Sondhei， Chuck Jones （《賓尼兔》之父）， 還有 John Steinbeck 都是該品牌鉛筆的粉絲， 還有 Vladimir Nabokov 與 Faye Dunaway——所有鉛筆的衍生品——卷筆刀，橡皮——這次鉛筆聚會上我最喜歡的就是：每支鉛筆都是一個三明治。很多年來，我一直在想鉛芯是如何放置在鉛筆的中央的。 后來我才知道鉛是由好時巧克力大小的波紋木板制成的。溝槽中放上石墨，上面在放另一塊木板，用膠水固定老，接來這個鉛筆三明治被鋸成一條一條，然后經過打磨，油漆的工序，在裝飾好金屬環(huán)與橡皮，一支鉛筆就誕生了：精致優(yōu)雅的Blackwings鉛筆。

Thank you， Mr. Berolzheimer. We’ll take a gross.

非常感謝 Berolzheimer 先生，我們要買很多鉛筆。