Our founder, Jonathan Veley, is a pioneer in the field of mechanical pencils. He created "The Online Mechanical Pencil Museum" in 2006, then distilled that information into The Catalogue of American Mechanical Pencil in 2011. The Catalogue was the first of its kind in its field and remains the seminal guide to American vintage and antique pencils. The book is out of print, but a digital version is available in our store. See The Catalogue of American Mechanical Pencils - EBOOK
Veley then created The Leadhead's Pencil Blog, originally as an update service for The Catalogue. Over more than ten years, the blog has taken on a life of its own, and it now contains more than 1,500 articles organized by brand. Beginning in 2018, Veley began publishing articles from the blog in book form; Volumes one through three are only available in book form (after an internet snafu wiped out the original articles), but volumes four and later remain live at the blog.
Other books Veley has written have greatly benefitted researchers, including American Writing Instrument Patents 1799-1910 (2013), American Writing Instrument Patents 1911-1945 (2014), and American Writing Instrument Trademarks 1870-1953 (2017). All of these are available exclusively through our store.
A Century of Autopoint, detailing the history of the Autopoint Company in unprecedented detail, was released in 2019, and copies are still available in our store (A Century of Autopoint - 2020 Indie Book award winner). The book received widespread praise and was the winner of the 2020 Indie Next Generation Book Award for best design for a non-fiction book, as well as being named a finalist in the writing and publishing category. Volumes 6 and 7 of The Leadhead's Pencil Blog were named finalist in the Indie Next Generation Awards in 2021 and 2022, respectively.