Michael Beschloss’s posting of historic photos on his Twitter feed turns up some real gems. Sometimes, other gems get posted in response. The photo above is a publicity photo of a young John Kennedy, perhaps in Berlin, in 1945 after the end of the war. He was hired as foreign correspondent by Hearst Newspapers, about the time his book, Why England Slept,was published.
Tip of the old scrub brush to @BeschlossDC and @keoni999 on Twitter.
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History, John F. Kennedy, Journalism, Typewriters, World War II | Tagged: History, John F. Kennedy, Journalism, Typewriters, World War II | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Photo from typewriter repairman and aficionado David Armstrong, from a Facebook group dedicated to IBM typewriters.
Armstrong said his client tells the provenance: The typewriter upon which John Irving wrote The World According to Garp. “It was completely worn out but after a complete rebuild my customer couldn’t be happier.”
This year marks 40 years since Garp was published — difficult to believe the time gone by. This may be the last novel I devoured in a day or so.
Irving marks the 40th anniversary at his website, with some somber notes.
This year I’m celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of my novel, The World According to Garp. I remember thinking the title of my fourth novel would change; The World According to Garp was always just a working title until something better came along. I was still looking for “something better” when I delivered the manuscript to Henry Robbins, my editor. Henry, and everyone else at Dutton who read Garp in manuscript form, declared that the title had to be The World According to Garp. I was stuck with it.
More importantly, it is a bittersweet feeling to have only recently written a teleplay of Garp, a miniseries in five episodes, because I always imagined — more than forty years ago — that the sexual hatred in the novel might become dated soon after it was published. Sadly, sexual hatred is still with us — it hasn’t gone away. The suspicion of sexual differences, the discrimination against sexual minorities — including flat-out bigotry and violence — haven’t become the extinct dinosaurs I thought these things would (and should) become.
In part, The World According to Garp depicts the struggles of the writing process — the false starts, the blocks, the disappointments. Yet Garp never loses conviction in his purpose as a writer, “because he knew what every artist should know: as Garp put it, ‘You only grow by coming to the end of something and by beginning something else.’ Even if these so-called endings and beginnings are illusions.”
There are days I sorely miss my old Selectric.
2 Comments | Books, History, Literature, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: Automation, History, John Irving, Literature, Typewriters, World According to Garp | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
From Pinterest, The Antikey Chop: “Photo of legendary musician Stevie Wonder typing on an aptly named Underwood Rhythm Touch typewriter.” (Is it a Rhythm Touch?)
I actually ran into Ray Charles once, in the Concorde Lounge at Dulles Airport, back in the days when one could accompany friends to the gates. Charles was famous for singing and leading a great band, for great piano playing, and for doing things most people would think blind people can’t or don’t do. Like drive a car.
Should we be surprised that a blind musician would use a typewriter? Is Stevie Wonder a good typist, putting down lyrics so others can sing his songs? Or is this a set-up shot for fun?
There is a series of typewriters by Underwood listed as “Rhythm Touch.” The machine pictured may well be one. Can anyone tell? The image seems to have originated from Greg Fudacz at the Antikey Chop.
The image shows up several times on Pinterest, but nowhere else I can find. Anyone got details on it?
1 Comment | Music, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: Music, Stevie Wonder, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
From Dean Frey, posting on Twitter as “Deny Fear @dean_frey.”
Frey posted this wonderful picture of Rachel Carson, taken by Erich Hartmann in 1962 (after publication of Silent Spring?)
Rachel Carson and her typewriter, by Erich Hartmann, 1962.
But hold your horses. Frey posted a raft of other artists with their machines. What a glorious little thread!
The entire glorious thread.
You have seen some of those photos, some of those artists, and some of those typewriters in other posts at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub. There are some sparkling photos there I had not seen before.
Thank you, Dean Frey.
1 Comment | History, photography, Rachel Carson, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: Dean Frey, History, photography, Rachel Carson, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Alex Holman, first tenor Smith-Corona, Boston Typewriter Orchestra
Seems to be.
I note they use non-typewriter bells instead of the return bell on the typewriter. Bells fell out of favor with later electrics. Is that a problem?
Do activities like this preserve the culture of the typewriter, or burn out actual working typewriters at greater speed? The eternal problem of art versus conservation.
Tip of the old scrub brush to The Good Men Project.
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4 Comments | Machines, Music, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: Machines, Music, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
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Helen Keller in a photo taken to promote her project of getting radios to blind children. Smithsonian Magazine/Corbis
If it’s June 27, it’s National Helen Keller Day. Helen Keller was born June 27, 1880.
Jimmy Carter designated her birthday National Helen Keller Day, in 1980. Twitter’s catching up with the celebration. Are you?
This is how we commemorated her in 2016.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Ethnographer? It’s a person who makes a systematic study of a people and its culture, a subdivision of anthropology, sociology, history and geography all at once.
Milan Karanovic, trained as a priest, studied folk and cultural trends of Bosnians, roughly from 1900 to World War II.
And this is his typewriter:
Typewriter of Bosnian ethnographer Milan Karanovic. Take careful note of special keys to accommodate Bosnian spellings. Typewriter on display in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Halabi.
Photo of Milan Karanovich, National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. “Zivot i rad” translates to “life and work.” Image by Jonathan Halabi.
Milan Karanovic was born in 1883 in Great Novljansko Rujiška. In his teens he moved to Sarajevo, graduated high school and attended seminary, graduating by 1909 and assuming duties as a parish priest (Orthodox?) in the Krajina region village of Rujnić. We know he published a study of the “village” of Sarajevo in 1907. On the wrong side of local authorities in World War I, he spent much of the war in prison. His publications resumed by 1925, and proliferated through 1937. He died in 1955.
The typewriter is an Optima Elite. I’m guessing this model was made during or after World War II; Optima used the Olympia name into World War II. After the war, Olympia factories in the zones controlled by the Soviet Union changed to Optima. Judging from photos, this machine may have been built in the 1950s, giving Karanovic only a few years to use it. I’m open to the idea that the Optima name was used earlier — this history of corporations and machines is out of my range. If you have better information, please feel free to contribute in comments.
Leave a Comment » | Anthropology, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: geography, History, Milan Karanovich, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Wikipedia caption: Polar explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard in front of his typewriter in the Terra Nova hut at Cape Evans (Ross Island, Antarctica). August 30, 1911. British Antarctic Expedition 1910-13 (Ponting Collection)
Even in the Antarctic, scientists and explorers need to write their findings down. A typewriter was the state-of-the-art tool in 1911. Here we see Apsley Cherry-Garrard with his typewriter, on expedition.
Cherry-Garrard probably used that machine to write the notes, if not the actual text, for his account of the expedition, The Worst Journey in the World:
The Worst Journey in the World is a memoir of the 1910–1913 British Antarctic Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott. It was written and published in 1922 by a member of the expedition, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, and has earned wide praise for its frank treatment of the difficulties of the expedition, the causes of its disastrous outcome, and the meaning (if any) of human suffering under extreme conditions.
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4 Comments | Antarctica, armistice, Books, Explorers and Exploration, History, Technology, Typewriters, Writing history | Tagged: Antarctica, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Books, Exploration, History, Technology, Typewriters, Writing history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Helen Keller. Image from flickr user Arabani
Helen Keller was born June 27, 1880.
Jimmy Carter designated her birthday National Helen Keller Day, in 1980. Twitter’s catching up with the celebration. Are you?
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Leave a Comment » | History, Typewriters | Tagged: Disabled, Helen Keller, History, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
We’ve featured some nice and influential machines here, over the years.
For Typewriter Day 2016, a list of some of those features.
Typewriters of the Moment:
Novelist David Goodis; I’ve seen this photo misidentified as Somerset Maugham, who also used a typewriter.
“The Typewriter,” by Leroy Anderson, performed by percussionist Alfred Anaya and Voces para LaPaz, directed by Miguel Roa, June 12, 2011.
1 Comment | History, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: History, Technology, Typewriter Day June 23, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Some wags designated June 23 as Typewriter Day — the anniversary of the date the typewriter was first patented by Christopher Sholes.
From the U.S. National Archives Administration: Dated June 23, 1868, this is the printed patent drawing for a “Type-Writer” invented by Christopher L. Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and J. W. Soule. Drawing for a Typewriter, 06/23/1868 Drawing for a Typewriter, 06/23/1868 (ARC Identifier: 595503); Patented Case Files, 1836 – 1956; Records of the Patent and Trademark Office; Record Group 241; National Archives.
Links below can get us into position to commemorate the day adequately. Maybe celebrate with ribbons, without the wrapping paper and boxes? (Okay, maybe puns aren’t the way.)
Checkout the Twitter posts, at #TypewriterDay.
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Historical dispute!
1 Comment | History, Patents, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: Christopher Sholes, History, June 23, Patents, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
William Faulkner at his typewriter, August 12, 1954, at his home in Oxford, Mississippi. Associated Press photo, via ShelfLife
William Faulkner at his typewriter, August 12, 1954, at his home in Oxford, Mississippi. Associated Press photo.
The photo was probably posed; the two books to the left of the typewriter are Faulkner books. Faulkner may have written in a pressed shirt and tie, but I doubt it.
Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950, and delivered a memorable speech about “the human condition” and the importance of art, especially poetry and prose, at his acceptance. His 1954 book, A Fable, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, in 1955.
The typewriter is a Royal KHM.
Faulkner was born September 25, 1897 — 2015 marks the 118th anniversary of his birth.
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
—Gavin Stevens
Act I, Scene III, Requiem for a Nun, by William Faulkner
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Posted by Ed Darrell
At IMDB: Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond at work on the screenplay for Irma la Douce
Billy Wilder’s reputation as a great film director would not be possible, but for the typewriter. It is fate, perhaps, that we find several photographs of Mr. Wilder with various typewriters. In the photo above, he’s pictured working with I. A. L. Diamond, “Izzy.” The pair collaborated on at least 17 different screenplays.
This one is clearly a Royal; Hollywood Legacy’s Pinterest site: “BILLY WILDER and frequent screenwriter partner, I.A.L. DIAMOND. “Izzy” is seated at the typewriter, with Wilder standing, as usual. Wilder liked to “think on his feet” and was a notorious pacer. Wilder & Diamond wrote 17 films together, including: SOME LIKE IT HOT, THE APARTMENT, LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, IRMA LA DOUCE”
Wilder’s scripts often featured writers and others who used typewriters. He had almost a fetish for featuring typewriters in his movies. How could we not like a guy who loved typewriters like that?
From the great Oz Typewriters site: “Wilder died in Beverly Hills on March 27, 2002. Here is what is on his tombstone
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2 Comments | History, Movies, Technology, Typewriters, Video and film | Tagged: Billy Wilder, film, History, Izzy Diamond, Movies, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
August 26 is the anniversary of the first television broadcast of professional baseball, in 1939; the future-legendary Red Barber called a doubleheader between his Brooklyn Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds from Ebbets field.
Both games were carried on experimental television station W2XBS, which evolved into New York’s NBC affiliate Channel 2, WNBC. Two stationary cameras were used, in contrast to the several used in modern broadcasts — and it was in black and white. About 3,000 people are estimated to have watched.
The Reds won the opener, 5-2, but the Dodgers roared back in game 2, 6-1.
In 1939, the broadcast was inspired by the New York World’s Fair, which showcased television, though there were perhaps only 400 television sets in the New York area. Baseball on television didn’t really take off until after World War II, with many games scheduled in 1946. Today, all 30 major league teams are scheduled to play on TV.
Ebbets field is gone. The Dodgers absconded to Los Angeles in the 1950s. Baseball games are in color.
Red Barber is gone, too. We have great play-by-play guys, and wonderful color commentators. There will never be another Red Barber though. Below is an old post noting Barber’s ways with typewriters.
Sportswriter Red Barber at his typewriter – State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/10011
The great Red Barber, when his hair was still red, working at his typewriter, with a volume of Roget’s Thesaurus close by.
Many of us knew Red chiefly through his weekly chats with Bob Edwards at NPR’s Morning Edition. The biographies say Red died in 1992. That was 19 years ago — it seems more recent than that. (Edwards left Morning Edition in 2004.)
It may be ironic to show Barber at his typewriter. He would be more accurately portrayed, perhaps, behind a microphone at a baseball park.
From 1939 through 1953 Barber served as the voice of the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was working for the New York Yankees when he retired in 1966. Barber had the distinction of broadcasting baseball’s first night game on May 24, 1935 in Cincinnati and the sport’s first televised contest on August 26, 1939 in Brooklyn.
During his 33-year career Barber became the recognized master of baseball play-by-play, impressing listeners as a down-to-earth man who not only informed but also entertained with folksy colloquialisms such as “in the catbird seat,” “pea patch,” and “rhubarb” which gave his broadcasts a distinctive flavor. (Radio Hall of Fame)
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Some of this post, probably the best stuff on Red Barber, is an encore presentation.
1 Comment | Baseball, History, Radio, Technology, Typewriters | Tagged: August 26 1939, Baseball, Bob Edwards, Broadcasting, Brookly Dodgers, Florida Memory, History, Radio, Red Barber, State Archives of Florida, Technology, Typewriters | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ho Chi Minh at his typewriter. Photo from EarthStation 1
The image looks to me to have been lifted off of a film or video; by the non-white color of his beard, this must have been taken sometime before 1955. I’ve found no other details on the photo, especially nothing on the typewriter. Anybody know the date of the photo, the occasion, the location, or the typewriter?
But there you go: Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the Vietnam freedom fighters against the Japanese in World War II, then against the French colonialists (his forces then called Viet Minh, and later Viet Cong), and then of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and the United States after 1954, until his death in 1969.
Ha! A second photo of Ho and a typewriter, from Greg Hocfell:
Ho Chi Minh at his typewriter. Photo via Greg Hocfell
Might those photos be from the same session? Ho looks about the same age, his hair and beard are about the same color, and he’s wearing a dark shirt with white buttons in each.
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1 Comment | History, Technology, Typewriters, Vietnam | Tagged: History, Ho Chi Minh, Technology, Typewriters, Vietnam | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
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