Famous authors and their typewriters

Ooh, cool!

Some of them must have had crap backs from typing in such silly positions.

What?

I'm concerned about posture!

Those are great.

And I want a copy of the Marlon Brando pic - with cat and typewriter - for my office. Love it.

Yay! This is fabulous. I have an absolute passion for typewriters. Also, Tennessee Williams' workspace looks like mine, including coffee cup. *takes a sip* Thanks for that link.

ETA: I noticed in comments that some readers were disappointed that their favorite writers were missing. I'm guessing it's because really good photos of them at work are hard to come by. These were the best I could find for what seemed to be the most wished for:

Hunter S. Thompson typing at Big Sur.

Jack Kerouac seen typing, I think, in a mirror, I think.

Hm, no Shakespeare. This list is c***.

Here's the thing, they're all famous and well-known. Most of us are not (yet). But...

Don't you just know what they're feeling, from their facial expressions? Typing away fast: omg, this is good, gotta get it down!

Musing off into space: So how do I write this? Where do I go from here? Or, need a minute to think about this...

And some seem so intent in their work, it's like the world around them doesn't exist.

Okay, I am imagining what was in their heads at that moment, but those expressions and postures seem so intimate, so real, and so familiar.

Thanks for the link!

wish I still had my typewriter sometimes... but then realise that I don't have to worry about ink or mistakes anymore!

I love the Marlon Brando one.

What !?! no Mark Twain, one of the first to use the typewriter for book writing ? (wonder if there is a picture of that .. guess I'll have to try google images)

I can remember the days of carbon paper and rubber erasers with no back space or even whiteout. I wasn't a writer then It must have been maddening .. except nobody knew any better.

Ahh Yesss

Interesting. There is a certain romanticism in watching an author working on a typewriter. Heck, I even bought my own typewriter when I was swept up in the notion of sitting before the machine, brow furrowed in concentration, as magic rushed through my fingers and onto the page.

Haha. Of course, romanticism gave way to practicality. My typewriter is in my closet now. I might brush off the dust long enough to write a short story or something, but it's not likely that I'll ever write a novel with the thing.

Still, when I feel like having the "old timey" feel while writing, I use a program to make my keyboard sound like a typewriter.

Ludicrum said:

Still, when I feel like having the "old timey" feel while writing, I use a program to make my keyboard sound like a typewriter.

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Way to go Ludicrum ..
That used to drive my ex-wife nuts ... no longer a problem.

Not just typewriters, but cigarettes!

Ah, those were the days.

Lil said:

Not just typewriters, but cigarettes!

Ah, those were the days.

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Those are still the days. I still use a manual typewriter, and I still smoke non-filter cigarettes.

What great pictures!

Yeah, I miss my little pink typewriter my mother bought me the Christmas when I was about ten years old. I wanted one pretty bad to type my poems on. It even worked, and I still have poems typed on the kiddie typewriter.

My grandparents had an old Underwood that all five of their daughters used in high school--my mother graduated in 1959, and her youngest sister in 1977. That thing lasted forever, until my grandparents donated it to the historical society, along with many other antique pieces. Actually, I guess it's still lasting.