The beauty of vintage typewriters.
And a few things to compare them to.
Look around.
As technology goes careening ever ahead, people are falling behind.
The shortened attention span entrained into billions by social media channels is not necessarily an empowering advancement.
People everywhere are forsaking the sunset to rush home and... sit in front of the screen.
Sure, I'm all about having centuries of knowledge at your fingertips at any moment.
However, there is beauty in taking a breath and looking back.
Not only that, it's the only place where life happens.
This is a call to awakening to the subtleties of the world around.
Give yourself the gift of a digital detox, if even during your writing hours.
You'll be pleasantly thrilled and perhaps ecstatic.
The typewriter is the ultimate machine for drafting. Meaning, you write and let the words fly, and then you go back later and edit.
The digital writing world kind of confused these topics.
Not to mention ChatGPT writes the bestsellers these days. Eminently logical, infinitely soulless.
I've explored almost every digital writing option, and my favorite tool (after having written a handful of books) is the typewriter.
(For instance, I've used an old Alphasmart Duo, rigged to be rechargeable, an Astrohaus Freewrite, a Remarkable 2 with Typefolio, a host of typewriters including AN IBM Correcting Selectric II, a 1923 Corona Three and a 1923 Hammond Folding, a 55 Groma Kolibri, a 1937 Underwood Noiseless, a mont blanc pen, a rollerball pen, walking with a dictation device, driving with a dictation device, etc).
But my best writing came in on a 1940's Smith Corona Silent like this.
Remember, when you're investing in a writing machine, it's a lifetime companion.
A $1000 typewriter will end up costing $2.70 per day for the first year.
However after 10 years, it was only 27 cents per day.
It goes on and on, as I've had a machine run flawlessly for 20 years (and so have countless other writers).
By contrast, I've bout 3 Macbook pros in the last 10 years for about 2k each.
So it's hard to get the mind around the typewriter as an investment until you're using it.
And we have invented a series of digital / analog hybrid workflows for later.
For now, draft, write, let fly the words of your soul.
Write on my friend,
Steven Budden Jr.
Classic Typewriter Co.
Chapel Hill, NC
Classictypewriter.com/
Nice piece. I use a Royal Quiet DeLuxe and an Olympia SM-9 at home, which I call my "desktops." I use a Smith-Corona Skyriter as my "laptop" for writing at the library, coffee houses, in the backyard, or anywhere else where I need to type "remotely." Nothing beats those writing machines!
I've been playing with the idea of getting an old typewriter for my classroom and set up a little writing center where students can practice typing. Maybe copying down poems or typing out drafts of their writing? Do you have any suggestions for what model would work well in my classroom? I don't have a lot of money to spend, so I'll probably check out garage sales this summer. What should I look for?