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I bought a vintage typewriter this weekend for $25. I don’t think it’s a particularly valuable model or anything, but it looks cool and makes a really satisfying typing noise. And there’s no “1” key, because at that point in time, people were expected to use the lowercase “l” in place of the actual number one. If I can find ribbon I might actually type on it. Right now it sits on the china hutch that you have to pass to go to our bathroom, so every time I go past it I have to hit the button that makes it go “Ding!” It’s driving my husband crazy. Anyway, I’ve obviously got typewriters on the brain, but I’m not the only one – these 10 authors liked theirs too.
1. Ernest Hemingway preferred to write standing up and kept his Royal Quiet de Luxe typewriter on a bookshelf in his Havana home, which is a museum these days. It was still at the museum until a couple of years ago, when it sold in an auction for $2750.
2. Jack Kerouac famously wrote On the Road using 12-foot rolls of paper. He later taped the rolls together, resulting in one huge scroll measuring 120 feet when unfurled. That’s single spaced, no margins or paragraph breaks, by the way. It took him a mere three weeks to tap it out at his fast-and-furious 100-word-per-minute pace.
3. John Steinbeck preferred his Hermes Baby, a model Hemingway also had on hand. The Baby was one of the first portable typewriters made in an age where the typing machines were notoriously heavy and cumbersome.
4. David Sedaris, whose dad used to sell IBM typewriters, used one until his boyfriend bought him a MacBook Air, sick of being stopped by security at airports. It’s no surprise that he turned the switch into an anecdote: ‘‘When forced to leave my house for an extended period of time, I take my typewriter with me, and together we endure the wretchedness of passing through the X-ray scanner. The laptops roll merrily down the belt, while I’m instructed to stand aside and open my bag. To me it seems like a normal enough thing to be carrying, but the typewriter’s declining popularity arouses suspicion and I wind up eliciting the sort of reaction one might expect when travelling with a cannon. ‘It’s a typewriter,’ I say. ‘You use it when you write angry letters to airport authorities.’”
5. Mark Twain definitely didn’t have a portability option, because he used the enormous Sholes & Glidden Treadle Model from 1874. The treadle looks like a hassle, but it was actually supposed to make things easier by providing a quicker carriage return. Twain had his customized, though, by replacing the treadle with a handle. Mr. Clemens is thought to have been the first author to ever submit a typewritten novel to a publisher.
6. John Updike used an Olivetti MP1 portable typewriter until the day he died. It was made the same year he was born – 1932- so he liked to tell people that the two of them were “Growing old and erratic together.”
7. George Orwell had a portable typewriter called the Remington Home Portable. Agatha Christie used the exact same model.
8. Hunter S. Thompson liked to abuse his red IBM Selectric by taking it out into the snow and shooting at it. It outlived him, though – after he shot himself, his body was found sitting at his typewriter with the single word “counselor” typed on the page in front of him.
9. David McCullough, the author behind 1776, uses a secondhand Royal Standard he bought in 1965. “I have written everything I’ve ever had published on it, and there is nothing wrong with it,” he once said.
10. P.J. O’Rourke uses an IBM Selectric as well, saying his short attention span doesn’t mix well with writing on a computer. And he’s right – it’s easy to get distracted by your e-mail and Twitter and Facebook and, well, mental_floss. He also says the typewriter is a good thing because it makes authors slow down. Stephen King once said that if he had a computer back in the day, he could have written three Cujos in the time it took to type the one. “Does the world need three times as many Cujos?” O’Rourke responded dryly.
Well, after researching all of that, I have an even more romanticized idea of typewriters than I did before. Jason, from now on, I’ll be submitting all of my _floss articles on typewriter paper. I’ll send you a telegram so you’ll know when to expect them.
Any other typewriter enthusiasts out there? Is there anything I should know about my new treasure? And can you find old typewriter ribbon anywhere other than eBay?
Hemingway, Steinbeck, Twain and Orwell pictures from Poetic Home.
Comments (22)
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Harlan Ellison is also well known for using a manual typewriter (Olympia SG 3) instead of a computer.
The link is to a FAQ about typewriters that also lists the models used by various authors.
posted by Steven on 6-15-2009 at 4:35 pm
Author Mark Schweizer, who’s written a series entitled “Liturgical Mysteries,” bought Raymond Chandler’s 1939 Underwood #5 typewriter. You can reach him at mark@sjmp.com.
posted by Alan Braun on 6-15-2009 at 5:21 pm
Like O’Rourke, I too used an IBM Selectric, when I was a kid in the 70s. My best friend had an IBM too – a manual one. So at least if the power went out, she could keep typing by candlelight, I couldn’t!
posted by KS on 6-15-2009 at 5:37 pm
While she may not be famous, my grandmother used a typewriter to write her memories from being a teenager living in France during WW2.
I still remember the sound of it and the smell of the ink tape. I think I even wrote a couple of school papers on it before we had a home computer.
posted by Haily on 6-15-2009 at 7:01 pm
I have a 1941 Royal Quiet de Luxe that I bought at a thrift store a couple years ago for $30. Apparently it can sell for upwards of $500. I found new ribbon for it at mytypewriter . com. Hope that helps!
posted by Missy on 6-15-2009 at 7:19 pm
I’ve always had a fascination with typewriters, even though I’ve never owned one. It has so much more personality than a computer, and there’s just something about hearing that ding that makes me smile; it’s like hearing your creativity.
posted by Ian on 6-15-2009 at 7:27 pm
The only typewriter story I can think of is that one of the pharmacists where I work often claims that one of his teachers threw a typewriter at his head.
posted by Janel on 6-15-2009 at 7:28 pm
Don’t forget the carbon paper to send copies to all your friends. And the erasable paper so you didn’t make holes in your paper using the typewriter eraser (with the brush on the other end.
posted by Dave on 6-15-2009 at 7:50 pm
Surprisingly I found typewriter ribbon at the big box office supply stores.
posted by Kat on 6-15-2009 at 8:49 pm
What a wonderful post!
I sometimes miss the Brother I used in 10-20 BC (before computers). Then I remember the whole pain in the ass of finding ribbon, and…meh. But I love that you got a classic; that’s tres cool.
posted by Johnny Cat on 6-15-2009 at 9:55 pm
I’ve got an Underwood three bank portable typewriter. I love the thing. However, the carriage return doesn’t work. Though, typing on a complete manual is some work. My WPM goes way down. :( What do you expect from Salvation Army for $10. My mom has a similar non-portable Underwood that completely works. Up until recently (I haven’t checked so they may still) Office Depot sold typewriter ribbons.
posted by nihil on 6-15-2009 at 10:11 pm
A friend of mine was a missionary to China in the 1960s. When he was moving about 7-8 years ago, he asked me to help him haul something to the sidewalk for trash pickup. It was a Chinese typewriter, complete with boxes of lead characters that could be inserted into the mechanism. I told him it was too cool to throw away–he said I could take it. Well, it sat in my basement for 3-4 years, and my wife was threatening to throw it out, so I put it on eBay.
It sold for more than $400 to a guy in France, who (presumably) collects typewriters.
Who knew?
posted by Will on 6-15-2009 at 10:15 pm
Wow! I did not think that people used the old typewriters anymore. I remember having to go through the typing class in High school before i could even consider going into the computer classes. And that was over 20 yrs ago. My very first typewriter was a Brother. I don’t remember if it was a electric or a manual type but i remember that it had the case and it was red.
posted by dana on 6-15-2009 at 11:15 pm
You can buy typewriter ribbon at Staples. If you have an old enough model, you have to use rubber gloves and wind the tape yourself, though.
I have a collection of typewriters, including a teal one, one that types in cursive, an old underwood (a nonportable with the round buttons but it doesn’t advance), a portable underwood (with the round buttons), a Quiet Deluxe, and I think one more. They are kind of a large thing to collect… The ones that work I use for craft projects.
posted by Jenny on 6-15-2009 at 11:51 pm
Oh! I love this post! I’m obsessed with typewriters. I went to the flea market and bought a typewriter for fifteen bucks.
And I found out it was worth like 445 bucks. They sell them everywhere in Mexico, since the country hasn’t completely moved towards newer technology.
posted by Alan on 6-16-2009 at 2:59 am
My wife just got me an antique Olympia manual typewriter for an early father’s day present. It feels so good to have a big clunky manual typewriter operating again. Makes the whole act of writing a lot more kinetic and involved.
posted by EMStoveken on 6-16-2009 at 9:25 am
Yay for this post. I love typewriters. If you still have the ribbon spool that came with the typewriter, you can buy new ribbon at Office Depot and wind it yourself. The standard half red, half black kind that is 1/2 inch wide (I think) fits most typewriters. If you don’t have the spool, a generic spool might fit, but some models are tricky and require a particular spool. If that’s the case, there are specialty stores online that sell original spools or replicas.
posted by Valerie on 6-16-2009 at 1:23 pm
Old Typewriter Supplies
Stop the search, we have hard to find typewriter ribbons – In Stock.
http://www.fjaproducts.com
Would this help?
posted by Sara in AL on 6-16-2009 at 1:28 pm
What is your source for the John Steinbeck reference? I thought he used an Olivetti? The Martha J. Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies, San Jose State University, San Jose, Ca has one of John’s typewriters. I think he also had an early electric typewriter.
Herb Behrens
posted by Herb Behrens on 6-16-2009 at 2:33 pm
I found a very old Royal (non-portable) to give to my boyfriend for his birthday. Great condition, despite the fact that it took a tumble down some stairs with me. (My finger broke its fall. Its fall broke my finger.)
Shockingly, I found ribbons at Staples, but they may be cheaper online.
posted by Amanda on 6-16-2009 at 4:01 pm
My boyfriend gave me a 1937 Underwood Noiseless for Christmas a couple years ago (it’s how I knew he was a keeper). I found that calculator ink ribbon (I got mine for $5 at Office Max) fits it just fine, as long as you don’t mind rewinding the spools yourself. I love my typewriter…it lives in my dorm room with me and creates a lot of conversation!
posted by Jenny on 6-16-2009 at 4:40 pm
I do occasional features, Typewriter of the moment. Jack Kerouac, Alfred Hitchcock, Faulkner and Hemingway, and Steve Allen have been featured.
Come over to Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub (www.timpanogos.wordpress.com), and do a search for “typewriter.”
I’ve had two IBM Correcting Selectric IIs, but you can’t get them repaired any more, in my experience. I have a manual Underwood, and have used Underwood and Royal manuals, and Olivetti and IBM electrics.
posted by Ed Darrell on 10-4-2009 at 12:31 am