The Typewriter Makes it Real

some thoughts on National Typewriter Day

Today is National Typewriter Day! I learned this from Letters of Note, which graces my inbox ever so often and is always delightful. Today, Shaun Usher of same shared letters by famous writers kvetching about the newfangled device.

I can’t write unless the typewriter is rattling

I think the tools with which we write have an effect on what is written. When we depended upon the oral tradition, stories were musical, poetic, repetitive so that we could memorize them, such as The Odyssey; this also seemed to hold with The Epic of Gilgamesh (which I explored in joyful depth here) which was written in cuneiform, but it may have first existed before the Sumerian written word went beyond tallying grain stores and was adapted for poems.

Then we scribbled with pens and could make notes and marginalia and cross out; great literature abounded! Then the typewriter stepped in, Bartleby be damned. We scrivened no more! This office drone tool was reluctantly adopted, just in time for the pulps, where fast-moving story lines that could be crafted in one’s mind as we typed. And then we moved to word processors with the almighty delete key, which precluded us having to know what we were typing before we typed it, because we could edit at will! And we had to relearn how to capture our voice back from the tyrannical internal editor who sits on our shoulder, telling us that everything is shit.¹

Definitely not my first typewriter.

My first experience with a typewriter was discovering the manual in a carrying case that was hidden away in my grandmother’s basement. I think it belonged to my deceased uncle Louis. It needed a new ribbon, which I purchased at Peerless Stationery in my hometown of Nutley, and I began tip-tapping away, smacking ink onto paper—sometimes even onionskin or vellum when I was feeling fancy. It was a manual, and I hit the keys with such force that the periods punctured the paper with peepholes. Whatever I wrote using the typewriter felt more real than my journal scribblings. It felt… published.

You’d think I would have approached it with reverence, but mostly I wrote dirty words. I was perhaps eight years old, and to me, the pinnacle of forbidden knowledge were the R-rated movies on HBO that I was not allowed to watch, but watched anyway. This is why I titled my very first newsletter, written on that typewriter:

R Magazine.

I don’t remember much of what I wrote for it, except a story about a man who used every iteration of the word “shit” that I knew, until he transformed into a giant walking turd. My older cousin Lou (son of the typewriter’s owner) was so tickled by my puerile attempts at humor that he read this aloud, much to my delight. (He’s still my favorite cousin.)

I embraced the computer keyboard when my mother, supporting us on a cocktail waitress salary but driven by the guilt of divorce, gave me an Atari 800XL for my twelve birthday. But I’ve lusted for a typewriter, such as a snazzy portable Olivetti Valentine, for years. And their just happens to be a Typewriter shop in Philly! One so great that even Tom Hanks is a customer!

Philly Typewriter

Philly Typewriter on Instagram: “Every day I (Bill) walk into the shop and hear myself go “Wow, I can’t believe we’re here, we’re doing it!” Bryan will often joke when he walks in the shop “What? A typewriter shop? Look at this!” Each day we’re here, it’s the realization of a dream, and the day after, the chance to dream bigger. Recently, we were honored with a gift in the mail. A big box that we knew had a machine in it, but who it was from filled our hearts with joy. Tom Hanks had sent us a typewriter. A Rheinmetall, in beautiful condition, arrived with a play tone towel and a letter from Hanks beseeching us to repair, service, sell, keep or display, this autographed machine from his collection. An incredibly giving man, Tom’s gift giving with typewriters is well known in the typewriter community and world at large. This isn’t our first encounter with Mr. Hanks. A few years ago while on his tour for his book “Uncommon Type,” Tom came through Philly and got wind of us. Generous with his words as he is with his machines, Tom called us “a national resource” in an interview, a title we tirelessly strive to deserve. Something we’re all very emphatic about at Philly Typewriter is how these machines encourage human connection. How two people who have never met or spoken a word to one another now have something in common, sent with intention and received with care, whether a letter or machine. This typewriter will join our museum pieces, the conversation starters, the wow factors, and typewriters that encourage that personal interaction. Our thanks to Tom for connecting with us, and giving us one more thing we all have in common… Who doesn’t love Tom Hanks? #phillytypewriter #phillytypewriterrepair #vintagetypewriter #typewriters #authors #typosphere #qwerty #philadelphia #philly #eastpassyunk #typewritercollectors #typewritercommunity #writerscommunity #typewritersofinstagram #partsmanufacturing #fabrication #therevengeofanalog #typewriter #vintage #antique #restoration #preservation #typewriterrestoraton #typewriterrevolution #therevolutionwillbetypewritten #thefutureisanalog #tomhanks”

April 21, 2023

However, I like not being murdered in my sleep. Sarah has told me emphatically that a clacking typewriter would engage her misophonia, and so I merely admire them from afar. Because I’m honest with myself. I wouldn’t write great novels on such a thing.

But I’d definitely escalate to writing X Magazine.

1. Sometimes it is shit.