Just posted some of my newer acquisitions to my typewriter gallery

I’m not so good at cataloging my typewriters, but I finally decided to update my typewriter page with some of my newest acquisitions.

An amazing weekend

So after a week of COVID isolation, I tested negative just in time for the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Since I was not at home in the U.S. to hit the streets for a protest, I went to Christopher Street Day in Freiburg instead. We also went to a massive flea market (and I bought three new typewriters) and on Sunday we went to to see the Marriage of Figaro at the Stadttheater Freiburg. Lots of escapism!

My Talk on East European Typewriters on YouTube →

This is my first public presentation on my project dealing with the history and material culture of East European typewriters.

My visit to the Belgrade book museum →

Yesterday, on my hunt for information about Yugoslav typewriters, I found myself at ADLIGAT, the Society for Culture, Art and International Cooperation in Belgrade. This place is a bibliophile’s dreamland; they have over one million books and various exhibits and displays about book cultures from around the globe. They also have an impressive number of typewriters on display, many which belonged to famous writers, including the wonderful UNIS tbm de Luxe, which was manufactured in Bugojno from 1971 to 1991 under a German license and was exported with 92 different keyboards to nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. I’m told they have more than 100 machines in storage, and I am lobbying for a special typewriter room! Below are some photos from my visit, but they simply cannot do justice to the magical nature of the place. Visit if you can!

A new typewriter for my collection

So I was in Montmartre yesterday and I was thinking that I should head out to one of Paris’s famous flea markets to do a little typewriter hunting. On my way to the metro, I popped into an antique shop and saw a pretty beat up Remington Portable, made in the USA for the German market with a QWERTZ keyboard, dating from the 1920s or 1930s. I think it’s a Portable #2, but I’m not sure yet because I haven’t located the serial number. In any event, I spoke to the proprietor in Spanish and it was clear he had no idea how the thing worked. (Paris tip: NEVER speak in English when you want to bargain for anything. The French are much nicer if you start in another language and then come to English as a third common language. They are very sensitive about English linguistic imperialism, and I really don’t blame them. All over Paris I hear Brits and Americans speaking loudly in English and just expecting locals to understand it.)

Anyway, I bargained for this lovely machine in Spanish, and the proprietor gave me a reasonable price for a machine in this condition. I am looking forward to restoring it and addition it to my growing collection.

A Royal Safari from 1965

Friday was a wonderful day. I thrifted two amazing pant suits at the Junior League, and found this 1965 Royal Safari manual typewriter in a local nostalgia shop for $40. It’s in excellent condition, and is a perfect addition to my collection. It has “magic margins!”

Berlin days

The first couple of days in Berlin have been amazing so far. I am sinking deep into the history of the DDR, and trying to better understand the transition after 1989. I met with my brilliant German editor at Suhrkamp on Thursday, had dinner with my dear friend Susan Neiman on Friday, and have hit the Berlin Trödel markets hard this weekend.

In front of a portrait of August Bebel in Prenzlauer Berg.

Berliner Dom by night

DDR-era bust of Marx purchased in the Weissensee trödelmarkt for 3 euro

Two new typewriters from the trödelmarkt: An Olympia Traveller de Luxe and a Prvileg.

the Plaza of the 9th of November 1989

Writing on the deck

The sun was shining and the words felt like they were going to flow…

Important software update

Ribbons are soft, right?

The Sound of Productivity

I've been typing away these days, using my electric Smith Corona because my wrists have been acting up again. I love the sound of the carriage return on this machine, because it punctuates the fact that I have written another line of text.  The return key on a keyboard just isn't as satisfying....

Cyrillic typewriters

In my research on the Bulgarian typewriter factory in Plovdiv, I stumbled across a couple of earlier models. The German Erika is probably from the 1920s, and I bought it and brought it home with me to the United States to add to my growing typewriter collection.  It needs a good clean up, but otherwise it works like a charm.