This is my typewriter.
It is a number 4 smith corona in mountain ash red, and is nearly 100 years old! I battled for it on e-bay and won it for eighty one dollars and 50 cents.
My typewriter has a spot on the space bar where the paint is worn away from so much spacing, and two keys that stick. It is perfect. I like to use it in the evening before dinner when it’s just turning dark. I like to imagine who used it in the 1920’s. Sometimes I think it was a fiery woman news reporter who traveled the world, digging out stories from underneath piles of sand in Saudi Arabia and climbing the Swiss alps to interview the native people. Or sometimes I think it was a girl detective, or the head of a fashion magazine in New York City, like the one in Funny Face. I plan on trying all of those things.
Authors from the earlier days wrote wonderful things. Maybe authors today need to close their eyes and not think so much. Maybe they need to slow down to find their story. A computer lets you write too fast, but on a typewriter you have to take your time. When I type on my typewriter, I can feel the right words resting on the keys. Sometimes, of course, I have to stop and consider, but even the considering part is easier when I sit in front of my typewriter. Even when I write a simple blog post on the computer I have to make myself stop and think for longer than I would on the typewriter. In a typewriter there is history, allure, rhythm, and always a story. It’s easy to find the story in a typewriter, but on the computer it’s hard. The classics were written by hand or on a typewriter. And I want to write classics.
It looks to me you have found the perfect typewriter for you and your writing style. Let the keys tell you a story! I bet this gem has many stories to tell. Mighty fine!!
O my gosh…I love your red typewriter…swoon!!!
…I just uncovered my mum’s vintage Olivetti Lettera 32 which is not as far back as your typewriter but comes from the 60’s.
I love what you say about the typewriting forcing you to take your time and think….i want to write classics too :)
Oh, thank you lots for commenting, the Olivetti is magnificent!
Now I want to add a typewriter to my office. You’ve inspired me. Is it difficult to find the necessary typewriter ribbons in this day and age of computers? Do tell.
Well, I get my ribbons at my typewriter.com