Mark Twain's Typewriter

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.