I turn 80 this year. In high school I took both the academic and the business track, which included two years of typing -- accuracy and speed drills in touch typing, and then learning the myriad forms of business correspondence and how to write a resume. This paid my rent and fed me for many, many years. On one Kelly Girl assignment I worked for a lawyer typing documents from his handwriting onto legal length paper with eight carbon copies. Because they would be entered into court records there could be no erasures whatsoever. After a rocky beginning I did learn to center my mind on the task of producing error free pages -- on a manual typewriter for eight hours a day. (My most boring job ever was to type checks, with carbons, on an electric typewriter -- also for eight hours a day'. Thankfully, that assignment lasted only six weeks.)
I have always nested comfortably in sentences and the words that make them, and respected the well stated thought. After two years of a liberal arts education, I followed my husband to a university town where I became a Typist I for a botany professor whose first language wasn't English. His scientific mind was clear to me though, so I freely rewrote whatever he handed me to type for journal publication and professional correspondence. I knew he would catch any errors I may have introduced, and would offer another way to clarify what he meant to say. In that job and others, even though I was a mere typist hired to regurgitate other people's thoughts into text form, I always felt responsible for every page that passed through my typewriter -- that it made sense, in itself and in the context of what had gone before and what followed.
One day I learned entirely by accident that there was such a thing as a technical writer, and I knew immediately that that was what I wanted to be. I went on to have a twenty year career in a large southern city, writing computer and software documentation. My very best work toward the end was writing for computer systems and network systems engineers. Knowing sense from nonsense took me a long way -- plus I graduated high school a few years ahead of the memo telling girls not to learn to type.
My mother, who grew up in Springfield, Missouri, was some sort of speed champion typist for the state of Missouri when she was in high school. She had a 1935 Royal with the little cannisters on each side that held the ribbon. I can't remember what her speed was--75 words per minute? but her fingers were big and strong (her hands were bigger than my dad's). You had to have strong fingers to push down those clunky keys. She gave me that typewriter when I went off to college and my roommates called it the Royale (accent on the last syllable, of course). I used it through the sixties and into the seventies, when my husband gave me an electric Smith Corona. It went fast--I could do over a hundred words a minute on it, but it had none of the charm of the Royal. One more short story. I was about four and my cat, Brownie, decided to keep her kittens in the carriage of the Royal. My mother, a little annoyed, said this was no place to put kittens, and she put them in a box with a blanket. But Brownie would have none of this. She would put them back in the typewriter. I was on Brownie's side. There was something cozy about that bed of keys.
I have a picture of a 1935 Royal, not ours, but one I found on Google. Where can I post it?
Typewriters still give me a little chill of fear from my school typing lessons (yes, on a typewriter, I am that old), because it was slightly scary. Or maybe it was just the teacher who was slightly scary, not sure which. So this is therapeutic, right? Looking at photos of typewriters is making me think like they’re good things.
When I’m reading to learn a language (in the target language and in a language I already know parallel), I do copy out individual words I’m catching on to, sorting them by categories in a notebook (often an old nicely bound agenda). Not while I’m reading, but later on.
I also copy out books or passages to practice the script, particularly for Arabic.
For Japanese I started playing a video game that has not been translated, copying out each screen of text, looking up and writing down all the words and kanji. I got 11 screens in. Each line of text (with vocab etc) filled at least 2 notebook pages.
I used a manual typewriter for high school and college papers. I really did "cut" and "paste" with those. I hand wrote them, then, cut and taped paragraphs, to rearrange them. My last year of college, I treated myself and had just enough cash to pay someone else to type for me. Oh, no mistakes were allowed in college paper typing. So, that last year was definitely a treat!
Your experience here, looks like fun! Especially those carbonless guest checks! Beyond fun though, I really like the idea of slowly typing a poem to absorb it slowly and get the feel of the line breaks. It's like biking or walking instead of driving-you really see things along the way.
Well maybe on topic or slightly off topic...hopefully I won't get kicked off. I still write checks to pay my bills...how very old-fashioned and slow. (And yes, make books by hand, as I'm a book artist.) I love paper...what can I say. But by writing checks, this also means I have to buy stamps. And there are so many beautiful stamps out there. I know I should probably switch to online check paying, and buying stamps is more expensive. But....It is a process that has become a ritual...perhaps a bit slow, but so be it.
PS I loved California Typewriter. But you won't believe the errors I make when typing!
Wow...you inspired me to get my Hermes 3000 out of the attic to see if it still worked. Amazingly, there's still some ink left on the ribbon. I just ordered a new ribbon and look forward to typing poems, etc. This typewriter was a special gift, partly for typing my high school papers but also to type letters for my father(!)
Have you met (virtually) Dan Blank of The Creative Shift? He’s a typewriter collector also with several interesting aged machines. I’m not sure how to tag him in a comment, sorry. He just joined! But also here’s one article from his website. https://wegrowmedia.com/how-we-share-and-the-tools-we-use-to-do-so/
I’ve been making an art book about my 30+ years of making myself into a writer (to give me some perspective while my book-book languishes out on proposal 😝) I’ve been reading old journals and gluing little photocopies of some pages in my art book collages. One of my favorite parts has been typing out on my typewriter some of my own long-ago lines from those pages that ping my heart now, and then incorporating them in the collages.
Those restaurant checks, Austin! Makes me miss facilitating writer’s workshops for kids--they would have LOVED those. I’m definitely getting some for myself.
When learning how to type, I was always intrigued by the phrases they gave us to practice using all the letters without looking. Lol, indeed, they were their own kind of poetry! Here are a couple that are still burned in my memory:
Trixie and Veronica, our two cats, just love to play with their pink ball of yarn.
When do you think they will get back from their adventure in Cairo, Egypt?
Wow! Today’s newsletter immediately reminded me of a book I bought a few years ago called Typewriter Rodeo, a group of Austin-based writers who write/type poems on demand!
Apr 11, 2023·edited Apr 11, 2023Liked by Austin Kleon
Ah, you beat me to it Austin! I want to do a whole thing about typewriters sometime soon. They are awesome! I’ll never be a “Tom Hanks collector”, but I have a few prized machines. My favorite: a 1965 Hermes 3000. Typing on that one is a dream; the keys and I simply click. After I found it, I learned Sylvia Plath wrote “The Bell Jar” on this very model. Love your idea to use guest check paper … business invoices would be another good one.
My mom recently gave me her Hermes 3000 from college and that caused me to acquire about 15 more machines. They are such beautiful things (usually) and so enjoyable to use. My handwriting is horrible (I know I should fix it) and I much prefer using a typewriter. I give typewriters away to anyone who even mentions they might be at all interested in one. My favorites are the Hermes 3000, Hermes 2000, Royal Quiet Deluxe, and the Olympia SG-1. There are two good typewriter shops in the Philly area - Philly Typewriter and WPM. The former is the place to go if you want to get a machine restored to a very high level. The latter has a big inventory in varying conditions and they have a technician who will do a solid cleanup for a machine. I love this idea of typing out what you like as a practice!
I turn 80 this year. In high school I took both the academic and the business track, which included two years of typing -- accuracy and speed drills in touch typing, and then learning the myriad forms of business correspondence and how to write a resume. This paid my rent and fed me for many, many years. On one Kelly Girl assignment I worked for a lawyer typing documents from his handwriting onto legal length paper with eight carbon copies. Because they would be entered into court records there could be no erasures whatsoever. After a rocky beginning I did learn to center my mind on the task of producing error free pages -- on a manual typewriter for eight hours a day. (My most boring job ever was to type checks, with carbons, on an electric typewriter -- also for eight hours a day'. Thankfully, that assignment lasted only six weeks.)
I have always nested comfortably in sentences and the words that make them, and respected the well stated thought. After two years of a liberal arts education, I followed my husband to a university town where I became a Typist I for a botany professor whose first language wasn't English. His scientific mind was clear to me though, so I freely rewrote whatever he handed me to type for journal publication and professional correspondence. I knew he would catch any errors I may have introduced, and would offer another way to clarify what he meant to say. In that job and others, even though I was a mere typist hired to regurgitate other people's thoughts into text form, I always felt responsible for every page that passed through my typewriter -- that it made sense, in itself and in the context of what had gone before and what followed.
One day I learned entirely by accident that there was such a thing as a technical writer, and I knew immediately that that was what I wanted to be. I went on to have a twenty year career in a large southern city, writing computer and software documentation. My very best work toward the end was writing for computer systems and network systems engineers. Knowing sense from nonsense took me a long way -- plus I graduated high school a few years ahead of the memo telling girls not to learn to type.
[GUEST CHECK + KITCHEN CHECK = BRILLIANT]
My mother, who grew up in Springfield, Missouri, was some sort of speed champion typist for the state of Missouri when she was in high school. She had a 1935 Royal with the little cannisters on each side that held the ribbon. I can't remember what her speed was--75 words per minute? but her fingers were big and strong (her hands were bigger than my dad's). You had to have strong fingers to push down those clunky keys. She gave me that typewriter when I went off to college and my roommates called it the Royale (accent on the last syllable, of course). I used it through the sixties and into the seventies, when my husband gave me an electric Smith Corona. It went fast--I could do over a hundred words a minute on it, but it had none of the charm of the Royal. One more short story. I was about four and my cat, Brownie, decided to keep her kittens in the carriage of the Royal. My mother, a little annoyed, said this was no place to put kittens, and she put them in a box with a blanket. But Brownie would have none of this. She would put them back in the typewriter. I was on Brownie's side. There was something cozy about that bed of keys.
I have a picture of a 1935 Royal, not ours, but one I found on Google. Where can I post it?
Typewriters still give me a little chill of fear from my school typing lessons (yes, on a typewriter, I am that old), because it was slightly scary. Or maybe it was just the teacher who was slightly scary, not sure which. So this is therapeutic, right? Looking at photos of typewriters is making me think like they’re good things.
When I’m reading to learn a language (in the target language and in a language I already know parallel), I do copy out individual words I’m catching on to, sorting them by categories in a notebook (often an old nicely bound agenda). Not while I’m reading, but later on.
I also copy out books or passages to practice the script, particularly for Arabic.
For Japanese I started playing a video game that has not been translated, copying out each screen of text, looking up and writing down all the words and kanji. I got 11 screens in. Each line of text (with vocab etc) filled at least 2 notebook pages.
I used a manual typewriter for high school and college papers. I really did "cut" and "paste" with those. I hand wrote them, then, cut and taped paragraphs, to rearrange them. My last year of college, I treated myself and had just enough cash to pay someone else to type for me. Oh, no mistakes were allowed in college paper typing. So, that last year was definitely a treat!
Your experience here, looks like fun! Especially those carbonless guest checks! Beyond fun though, I really like the idea of slowly typing a poem to absorb it slowly and get the feel of the line breaks. It's like biking or walking instead of driving-you really see things along the way.
Well maybe on topic or slightly off topic...hopefully I won't get kicked off. I still write checks to pay my bills...how very old-fashioned and slow. (And yes, make books by hand, as I'm a book artist.) I love paper...what can I say. But by writing checks, this also means I have to buy stamps. And there are so many beautiful stamps out there. I know I should probably switch to online check paying, and buying stamps is more expensive. But....It is a process that has become a ritual...perhaps a bit slow, but so be it.
PS I loved California Typewriter. But you won't believe the errors I make when typing!
I LOVE writing and designing and sewing words into stuff into stuff anywhere everywhere … I learned to type
On a typewriter in Highschool. I am Avery good and very fast typer. If you REALLY want to slow down try sewing your words - it is a wonderful practice
Wow...you inspired me to get my Hermes 3000 out of the attic to see if it still worked. Amazingly, there's still some ink left on the ribbon. I just ordered a new ribbon and look forward to typing poems, etc. This typewriter was a special gift, partly for typing my high school papers but also to type letters for my father(!)
Have you met (virtually) Dan Blank of The Creative Shift? He’s a typewriter collector also with several interesting aged machines. I’m not sure how to tag him in a comment, sorry. He just joined! But also here’s one article from his website. https://wegrowmedia.com/how-we-share-and-the-tools-we-use-to-do-so/
Anni Albers used typewriter studies as part of her curriculum at Black Mountain College. She called them "tactile-textile" illusions.
http://kvadratinterwoven.com/typewriters-and-tactile-textiles
I’ve been making an art book about my 30+ years of making myself into a writer (to give me some perspective while my book-book languishes out on proposal 😝) I’ve been reading old journals and gluing little photocopies of some pages in my art book collages. One of my favorite parts has been typing out on my typewriter some of my own long-ago lines from those pages that ping my heart now, and then incorporating them in the collages.
Those restaurant checks, Austin! Makes me miss facilitating writer’s workshops for kids--they would have LOVED those. I’m definitely getting some for myself.
When learning how to type, I was always intrigued by the phrases they gave us to practice using all the letters without looking. Lol, indeed, they were their own kind of poetry! Here are a couple that are still burned in my memory:
Trixie and Veronica, our two cats, just love to play with their pink ball of yarn.
When do you think they will get back from their adventure in Cairo, Egypt?
Wow! Today’s newsletter immediately reminded me of a book I bought a few years ago called Typewriter Rodeo, a group of Austin-based writers who write/type poems on demand!
Ah, you beat me to it Austin! I want to do a whole thing about typewriters sometime soon. They are awesome! I’ll never be a “Tom Hanks collector”, but I have a few prized machines. My favorite: a 1965 Hermes 3000. Typing on that one is a dream; the keys and I simply click. After I found it, I learned Sylvia Plath wrote “The Bell Jar” on this very model. Love your idea to use guest check paper … business invoices would be another good one.
My mom recently gave me her Hermes 3000 from college and that caused me to acquire about 15 more machines. They are such beautiful things (usually) and so enjoyable to use. My handwriting is horrible (I know I should fix it) and I much prefer using a typewriter. I give typewriters away to anyone who even mentions they might be at all interested in one. My favorites are the Hermes 3000, Hermes 2000, Royal Quiet Deluxe, and the Olympia SG-1. There are two good typewriter shops in the Philly area - Philly Typewriter and WPM. The former is the place to go if you want to get a machine restored to a very high level. The latter has a big inventory in varying conditions and they have a technician who will do a solid cleanup for a machine. I love this idea of typing out what you like as a practice!
Your next typewriter?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7FZgD5lq68