As post-war shortages faded in memory, the 1970s-80s became a time period when middle-class Americans felt relatively comfortable financially and increasingly able to indulge themselves. During the ...

ICHEON, Gyeonggi Province — How much can a pencil sharpener mean to its owner? In Kim Won-rae’s world, it means a lot. At his workshop in Icheon, outside Seoul, where he fixes sharpeners as old as ...

One morning last month a man sat down at his computer and ordered $4,000 worth of pencils designed to look like John Steinbeck's favorite, the Blackwing 24. "It's probably the most iconic pencil ever ...