Finding the best typewriters book suitable for your needs isnt easy. With hundreds of choices can distract you. Knowing whats bad and whats good can be something of a minefield. In this article, weve done the hard work for you.
Reviews
1. Love Notes: 30 Cards (Postcard Book): Poems from the Typewriter Series
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Abrams NoterieDescription
From Tyler Knott Gregson, author of the national bestseller Chasers of the Light and creator of the Typewriter Series, this book contains 30 beautiful poetry cards devoted to love. Printed in full-color on heavy stock with gold edges, each card is a spontaneous romantic gesture waiting to happen. Include one with flowers and send another by mail. Place a card on a pillow, leave one by the morning coffee, and tuck another in a coat pocket for later discovery. Selected from Tylers most insightful pieces of work, this collection is filled with heartfelt, honest, and inspiring words from one of poetrys most popular new voices.
Also Available: Tyler Knott Gregson: Poems from the Typewriter Series 2018 Wall Calendar (ISBN: 978-1-4197-2454-1)
Also Available: Tyler Knott Gregson: Poems from the Typewriter Series 2018 Wall Calendar (ISBN: 978-1-4197-2454-1)
2. The Chinese Typewriter: A History (MIT Press)
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Chinese writing is character based, the one major world script that is neither alphabetic nor syllabic. Through the years, the Chinese written language encountered presumed alphabetic universalism in the form of Morse Code, Braille, stenography, Linotype, punch cards, word processing, and other systems developed with the Latin alphabet in mind. This book is about those encounters -- in particular thousands of Chinese characters versus the typewriter and its QWERTY keyboard. Thomas Mullaney describes a fascinating series of experiments, prototypes, failures, and successes in the century-long quest for a workable Chinese typewriter.The earliest Chinese typewriters, Mullaney tells us, were figments of popular imagination, sensational accounts of twelve-foot keyboards with 5,000 keys. One of the first Chinese typewriters actually constructed was invented by a Christian missionary, who organized characters by common usage (but promoted the less-common characters for "Jesus" to the common usage level). Later came typewriters manufactured for use in Chinese offices, and typewriting schools that turned out trained "typewriter girls" and "typewriter boys." Still later was the "Double Pigeon" typewriter produced by the Shanghai Calculator and Typewriter Factory, the typewriter of choice under Mao. Clerks and secretaries in this era experimented with alternative ways of organizing characters on their tray beds, inventing an arrangement method that was the first instance of "predictive text."
Today, after more than a century of resistance against the alphabetic, not only have Chinese characters prevailed, they form the linguistic substrate of the vibrant world of Chinese information technology. The Chinese Typewriter, not just an "object history" but grappling with broad questions of technological change and global communication, shows how this happened.
3. Typewriter: A Celebration of the Ultimate Writing Machine
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SterlingDescription
Favored by many famous and upcoming writers and poets as their tool of choice, and benefitting from the nostalgia of steampunk and Mad Men, typewriters (like vinyl) have experienced a resurgenceespecially among hipsters. This fascinating book celebrates that renaissance through images of the most beautiful, curious, elaborate, and heralded typewriters in history, along with the stories of people who have created and used these beloved machines. Written by two typewriter collectors and experts, it features 125 color photographs tracing the typewriters evolution from the nineteenth through the twentieth centuriesending with the advanced IBM Selectricalong with print advertisements, vintage photographs, patents, and other memorabilia.
4. The Typewriter Revolution: A Typist's Companion for the 21st Century
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The Typewriter Revolution A Typist s Companion for the 21st CenturyDescription
The connoisseur's guide to the typewriter, entertaining and practicalWhat do thousands of kids, makers, poets, artists, steampunks, hipsters, activists, and musicians have in common? They love typewritersthe magical, mechanical contraptions that are enjoying a surprising second life in the 21st century, striking a blow for self-reliance, privacy, and coherence against dependency, surveillance, and disintegration. The Typewriter Revolutiondocuments the movement and provides practical advice on how to choose a typewriter, how to care for it, and what to do with itfrom National Novel Writing Month to letter-writing socials, from type-ins to typewritten blogs, from custom-painted typewriters to typewriter tattoos. It celebrates the unique quality of everything typewriter, fully illustrated with photographs, posters, postcards, manuals, and more.
5. Typewriters: Iconic Machines from the Golden Age of Mechanical Writing
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From the creation of the QWERTY keyboard to the world's first portable typing machine, this handsome collection is a visual homage to the golden age of the typewriter. From the world's first commercially successful typewriterthe Sholes & Glidden Type Writer of 1874to the iconic electric models of the 1960s, eighty vintage devices are profiled in elegant photographs and fascinating text that highlights the design modifications, intricate details, and peculiar quirks that make each typewriter unique. From functional advances like noiseless machines to luxurious details such as mahogany covers and inlaid mother-of-pearl, a century of design innovation and experimentation is charted in these pages. Packed with visuals and rich with history, Typewriters is the essential story of a writing invention that changed the world.6. Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of A Confederacy of Dunces
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Butterfly in the Typewriter The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of A Confederacy of DuncesDescription
The saga of John Kennedy Toole is one of the greatest stories of American literary history. After writing A Confederacy of Dunces, Toole corresponded with Robert Gottlieb of Simon & Schuster for two years. Exhausted from Gottliebs suggested revisions, Toole declared the publication of the manuscript hopeless and stored it in a box. Years later he suffered a mental breakdown, took a two-month journey across the United States, and finally committed suicide on an inconspicuous road outside of Biloxi. Following the funeral, Tooles mother discovered the manuscript. After many rejections, she cornered Walker Percy, who found it a brilliant novel and spearheaded its publication. In 1981, twelve years after the authors death, A Confederacy of Dunces won the Pulitzer Prize.
In Butterfly in the Typewriter, Cory MacLauchlin draws on scores of new interviews with friends, family, and colleagues as well as full access to the extensive Toole archive at Tulane University, capturing his upbringing in New Orleans, his years in New York City, his frenzy of writing in Puerto Rico, his return to his beloved city, and his descent into paranoia and depression.
7. The Typewriter
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The TypewriterDescription
Using just nine words, the award-winning creator of Chalk takes readers on another unforgettable journey. When three children discover a typewriter on a carousel, they are transported on an adventure of their own creationcomplete with a giant beach ball and a threatening crab. Stunning, richly colored artwork is paired with limited text so children can tell their own version of the story.
8. Uncommon Type: Some Stories
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A collection of seventeen wonderful short stories showing that two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor.A gentle Eastern European immigrant arrives in New York City after his family and his life have been torn apart by his country's civil war. A man who loves to bowl rolls a perfect game--and then another and then another and then many more in a row until he winds up ESPN's newest celebrity, and he must decide if the combination of perfection and celebrity has ruined the thing he loves. An eccentric billionaire and his faithful executive assistant venture into America looking for acquisitions and discover a down and out motel, romance, and a bit of real life. These are just some of the tales Tom Hanks tells in this first collection of his short stories. They are surprising, intelligent, heartwarming, and, for the millions and millions of Tom Hanks fans, an absolute must-have!
9. Typewriter: The History The Machines The Writers
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Typewriter The History The Machines The WritersDescription
Personal computers may have replaced the typewriter in most homes and offices, but the venerable writing machine is currently staging a comeback. From portable models that hipsters are snapping up in Urban Outfitters to Tom Hanks's bestselling app that recreates the manual experience on a tablet, the typewriter has never been so hot. This celebration of the typewriter covers what a platen knob is, why QUERTY won out over other arrangements of keys, which authors loved (or loathed) their typewriters, and much more.- A gift book with yellowed paper and typewriter fonts for a cool vintage look
- Timeline of the typewriter features key models
- Foreword by Paul Schweitzer of Gramercy Typewriter Co.
10. Typewriter Paper