Dec. 4, 2009
I only have one typewriter left, an Underwood 10 (I think; I’ll have to check the model number when I get home, but it looks like the one in the picture, only dustier). I’m kind of disappointed that I dropped the others, but it made sense at the time. The Underwood was the best of the lot, a big 35-pound block of steel that forces you to commit, physically, to each letter you type, and that’s why I’ll never let it go.
I’ve been saying “I’m going to buy some ribbon this weekend” for the last four or five years, but this weekend I really am. Really.
wellrespected:
The Art of Typewriter Collecting
The Arrow [Ernest Hemingway’s Royal Arrow] is one of my favorites, and I use it almost every day. I love its deep, muffled sound and the way the glass keys feel under my fingertips. I type addresses on envelopes, school excuses for my daughter, and other correspondence. I also reserve the Arrow for the first drafts of my short stories. The mechanics are far from perfect, though. The Shift key sticks sometimes, so it’s hard to type capital letters and symbols. The lowercase L stands in for the number one. And this model has no tabulator key, so I have to space, space, space, space, space to indent a paragraph. But the extra work makes me a more conscientious writer.… It’s like firing a gun with every stroke. You can’t retract the bullet. If you misspell, the typewriter won’t correct it for you. You have to plow on. With a typewriter you can track your progress like a worn path. This is where I’ve been. This is what I’ve learned.
See also: Cormac McCarthy’s typewriter for sale