Typewriter samples (1 Viewer)

mjp

Founding member
I thought I had publicly posted this, but now I can't find it. So here it is (again?).

typewriters.png
 
That IBM Selectric brings back fond memories. I used them at work in the 70s-80s and they were the best typewriters I'd ever used. Very smooth and uniform, with that cool rotating font ball you could change out in a second. Lots of different fonts available. I don't know how many they came with. You probably could buy them separately if you wanted something different. Somewhere in my house I have hundreds of poems typed on a Selectric, that I haven't seen for about 30 years. Maybe it's a good thing I can't find them.
 
Very cool, thanks a lot.

Thinking about Bukowskis monstrous amount of typing on those machines while living in rooming houses during the 50's and 60's I always marvel about the fact how little he mentions annoyed and complaining neighbors.

There are some of those in his letters, but it seems very little. And Bukowski obviously hammered on those machines day after day after day. Not only poems, columns and prose, which would be enough to pale everybody else off, but at the same time a flood of letters to drown the world in.

Maybe it worked because he had to type in the day time while working the P.O., when most of the neighbors were either working themselves or away anyhow?
 
They complained in some places more than others. Maybe that's why he stayed in the front unit on DeLongpre for so long. Less complaining.
 
And well-detected it has been. (Just balancing my occasional criticism with the occasional ball-washing.) How's Irish Spring? Hooch told me that it dries out your skin.:rolleyes:
 
Any chance that people with knowledge of the typewriters could post photos of Buk with typewriter and give us both the place, date and typewriter make/model?
 
The timeline column Jobs/Miscellany has a listing of the typewriters Joseph k, you might need to do a bit of sleuthing to match the photos of him with his typers to the years:),hope that helps.
 
I came to this thread to help me date some manuscripts that I photocopied from UCSB, and frankly... I'm having a hard time distinguishing those different typings!
But that's just me, thank you MJP for posting this, this is really great!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top