Typewriter Week

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In conclusion of "Typewriter Week", here are portraits of each of my main machines and snapshots of some of my typewriter memorabilia collection. I hope you've enjoyed this week's posts — I've certainly had fun finding all these images and celebrating my obsession. I will continue to post about typewriters in the UPPERCASE journal, but we'll also resume to our usual content next week.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians, and I'll see you soon. (Please note that UPPERCASE and the Art Central building will be closed on Sunday and Monday. The online shop is open, though, for a final weekend of Old School art. Click on the link on the righthand side of the site.)

Typewriter Theatre

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Ephemera

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Writing machines are terrific objects, but of even greater appeal to me is the visual culture of typewriters. I have collected numerous advertisements, typing and secretarial books, sales brochures and promotions, ribbon tins, accessories and typewriter manuals. It is an ongoing obsession. Here are a few images from my personal archive. (I covet these colourful Royals, illustrated below. One of each, please! They are indeed "breathtaking".)

Mark Twain's Typewriter

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Writer Mark Twain was an early champion of the typewriter, embracing the machine into his life and work and praising its speed and ingenuity.  He is noted to have typed his first letter on a Sholes & Glidden Typewriter as pictured above.  The date was December 2, 1874 and the recipient of this letter was his brother, Orion. 

The model above is an 1867 Malling Hansen Writing Ball, belonging to philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.  Nietzsche's fondness for typewriters grew out of personal necessity. He suffered blindness and turned to the typewriter, and the assistance of a secretary,  in order to carry on his writings. 

Nietzsche's philosophy of the typewriter considered the ways in which 'our writing tools shape our thoughts.'  For an illuminating and inspired essay on the social and cultural meaning of typewriters ("the coyote contraption"!) I highly recommend Barry Sanders' essay, "Bang The Keys Swiftly," typed on his very own IBM Correcting Selectric III, for Cabinet magazine.

Shaken, not stirred... oh, and gold-plated

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Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels, rewarded his own success by purchasing a gold-plated Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter. "Ian Flaming's gold-plated typewriter, which was commissioned from the Royal Typewriter Company, New York City, USA, in 1952, was sold for $89,229 at Christie's, London, England, in May 1995." For more about authors and their typewriters, visit My Typewriter's website and stay tuned for Deidre's post about Mark Twain's typewriter.

Below: Truly the gentleman's typewriter, the gold-plated Remington.