Typewriter of the moment: e. e. cummings

October 25, 2012

Typewriter of the poet and author e. e. cummings:

Typewriter of e. e. cummings at NYPL, photo by Chris Wolack, WildmooBooks

Typewriter of e. e. cummings, displayed at the New York Public Library, 2012. Photo by Chris Wolack, WildmooBooks

Through March of 2012, 250 objects from the collections of the New York Public Library were displayed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the opening of the library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.  A few of the objects exhibited were typewriters, including this one.

Did you notice?  The keyboard shows only capital letters!  Did that anger cummings, or make him crazy?  Not that we can see.

More: 

Self-Portrait, Oil Painting. Cummings in the 1950s. Courtesy of Nancy T. Andrews, via Modern American Poetry

 

Tip of the old scrub brush to Chris Wolack at WildmooBooks.

3 Comments | Books, History, Libraries, Poetry, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Kerouac played fantasy baseball – four decades early

May 17, 2009

Who knew?

Three of Jack Kerouac’s fantasy baseball team cards, circa 1953-56. New York Public Library, Berg Collection, Jack Kerouac Archive

Three of Jack Kerouac’s fantasy baseball team cards, circa 1953-56. New York Public Library, Berg Collection, Jack Kerouac Archive

Kerouac fans, and anyone who participates in a rotisserie league sport, and anyone who just wants a moment of merriment, should read this New York Times story:

Almost all his life Jack Kerouac had a hobby that even close friends and fellow Beats like Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs never knew about. He obsessively played a fantasy baseball game of his own invention, charting the exploits of made-up players like Wino Love, Warby Pepper, Heinie Twiett, Phegus Cody and Zagg Parker, who toiled on imaginary teams named either for cars (the Pittsburgh Plymouths and New York Chevvies, for example) or for colors (the Boston Grays and Cincinnati Blacks).

At least one more book Kerouac had inside, unwritten.  Now we just see the outline of what could have been a superb, and funny, work of fiction, in a book by New York Public Library curator Isaac Gewirtz.  The Kerouac items are in the Berg Collection at the Library.

No historian could make this stuff up.

1 Comment | Books, History, History and art, Libraries, Literature | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell