Ode to a Typewriter

underwood typewriter.jpg
It may be that everyone has a Blackberry or an iPhone these days, but the classic typewriter is still the epitome of cool for many writers. In this month's auction report, Ian McKay reports on the six-figure sale of Cormac McCarthy's antique Olivetti. Last year, English writer Frederick Forsyth told the BBC why he prefers his steel-cased portable. And now, flipping through my latest Levenger catalog, I spy David McCullough's Typewriter Bookend, a miniature reproduction of the "second-hand, 1940s Royal" that the Pulitzer prize-winning historian uses every day. It comes with a "short but original work of David McCullough's titled "A Bit of History about my Typewriter."

As for me, I'm not indifferent to the literary mystique of the old-fashioned typewriter. I have a standard Underwood (which looks a lot like the one pictured here), circa 1930, on which I have banged out (and I mean Banged) little notes and labels. For all else, the Macbook must do.