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Post by mingerganthecat on Jun 30, 2022 11:30:46 GMT -5
 Robert E. Howard mostly wrote on an Underwood No. 5 typewriter, one of the most popular models of his day and frankly a marvel of 20th century engineering. Apparently (if I understand correctly, which I might not) that's NOT one that he used, but with over four million of them produced it isn't impossible that one of his is still floating around out there. Someone may even still be using it. www.typewriters101.com/store/p725/1924_Underwood_No._5.htmlI own one myself, built in 1908 and still in working order. I don't have grid-power where I live, and it's good to be able to keep writing without depleting my batteries, though I have considered getting something a little more portable. I bought it on craigslist for 75 dollars from a guy who had it lying around in the back of his barn and who didn't know if it still worked. Fifteen minutes to replace the drawstring and unfreeze the upper carriage, then some cleaning with gun oil and an old toothbrush and it was working well enough. Still a bit clunky, but that's to be expected given its age. Ribbon spools can still be bought online or at some office supply stores. Spare parts can be bought online too I would assume, that or you could a get a machinist or even someone who owns a 3D printer to make them for you. |
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Post by terryallenuk on Jun 30, 2022 12:26:48 GMT -5
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Post by mingerganthecat on Jun 30, 2022 12:54:50 GMT -5
Good link, Terry!
Incidentally, getting used to a manual typewriter can be difficult if you're more familiar with the ease of computer keyboards. Typical computer posture just doesn't work. What works for me is thinking of it less like typing a keyboard and more like a playing a piano.
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Post by mingerganthecat on Jun 30, 2022 12:56:36 GMT -5
but with over four million of them produced it isn't impossible that one of his is still floating around out there. Someone may even still be using it. Story prompt for an urban fantasy writer, there... |
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Post by terryallenuk on Jun 30, 2022 14:06:36 GMT -5
Good link, Terry! Incidentally, getting used to a manual typewriter can be difficult if you're more familiar with the ease of computer keyboards. Typical computer posture just doesn't work. What works for me is thinking of it less like typing a keyboard and more like a playing a piano. I'm old enough to remember using a manual  |
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Post by Char-Vell on Jun 30, 2022 14:22:02 GMT -5
Robert E. Howard mostly wrote on an Underwood No. 5 typewriter, one of the most popular models of his day and frankly a marvel of 20th century engineering. Apparently (if I understand correctly, which I might not) that's NOT one that he used, but with over four million of them produced it isn't impossible that one of his is still floating around out there. Someone may even still be using it. www.typewriters101.com/store/p725/1924_Underwood_No._5.htmlI own one myself, built in 1908 and still in working order. I don't have grid-power where I live, and it's good to be able to keep writing without depleting my batteries, though I have considered getting something a little more portable. I bought it on craigslist for 75 dollars from a guy who had it lying around in the back of his barn and who didn't know if it still worked. Fifteen minutes to replace the drawstring and unfreeze the upper carriage, then some cleaning with gun oil and an old toothbrush and it was working well enough. Still a bit clunky, but that's to be expected given its age. Ribbon spools can still be bought online or at some office supply stores. Spare parts can be bought online too I would assume, that or you could a get a machinist or even someone who owns a 3D printer to make them for you. My mom had one of these for years. I will ask about it, but I fear she took it to the goodwill. |
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Post by mingerganthecat on Jul 3, 2022 11:20:17 GMT -5
Good link, Terry! Incidentally, getting used to a manual typewriter can be difficult if you're more familiar with the ease of computer keyboards. Typical computer posture just doesn't work. What works for me is thinking of it less like typing a keyboard and more like a playing a piano. I'm old enough to remember using a manual  Ok Boomer. Or are you a Silent? My mom, born late 1950's, said that electrics were pretty much standard by the time she entered the workplace. My dad was a welder and plumber and never had occasion to use either manual or electric. My grandfather was a typist in World War II and Korea. He never could get used to electric typewriters and struggled even more with word processors and PCs. Whenever my niece is around, she likes to leave me typewritten notes to the effect of the industrial revolution and its consequences having been a disaster for the human race.  |
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Post by mingerganthecat on Jul 3, 2022 11:56:51 GMT -5
Interesting article here, about Mark Twain and his typewriter: type-writer.org/?p=5093"It is quick, but the literary result is miraculously awkward, stilted, feeble, and infelicitous." Mark Twain was a well-known early user of the typewriter, but his opinions on the devices were not altogether positive, at least not at first. The early machines were such complicated devices that even professional writers often hired professional typists to use them, not unlike early PC programmers in a way. A considerable labor was still saved, and they improved even more with time, but it seems like Twain still wondered if something else was being lost. For people in the age of laptops and TTS technology, that's a not-unfamiliar concern. For myself, I think my writing is just as bad on cutting-edge technology as it is when I try to write on sheets of birchbark with a pointy stick and charcoal.  This part in particular is interesting to me, since it shows why someone who writes more in the vein of Robert E Howard would have a particular affinity for typing, and it also shows that "dime novelist" wasn't considered a particularly dirty word in that time period. |
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Post by terryallenuk on Jul 3, 2022 12:16:38 GMT -5
I'm old enough to remember using a manual Ok Boomer. Or are you a Silent? My mom, born late 1950's, said that electrics were pretty much standard by the time she entered the workplace. My dad was a welder and plumber and never had occasion to use either manual or electric. I was born '52 and I remember my Mom had a manual to start with as she used to work at home typing out delivery notes/invoices for the company she worked for. |
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Post by mingerganthecat on Jul 3, 2022 16:51:28 GMT -5
Ahh. My mom still had a Royal electric when I was a kid, that I still remember playing with occasionally. Think my oldest sister eventually turned it into meth. www.carolinemcalisterauthor.com/blog/c-s-lewis-and-the-royal-typewriterCS Lewis was somewhat famous for his personal dislike of typewriters. A lot of people make a bigger deal out of that than I think is warranted. Tolkien, on the other hand, owned an electric Hammond Varitype and once remarked that he enjoyed typing and, if he were fantastically rich, he would get an electric typewriter fitted with Fëanorian script. That's actually a really interesting idea... Interestingly, both men were Howard fans. CS Lewis was a subscriber to Weird Tales, and de Camp relates that Tolkien had read and enjoyed Howard's Conan tales. |
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Post by Ningauble on Jul 6, 2022 17:19:22 GMT -5
de Camp relates that Tolkien had read and enjoyed Howard's Conan tales.
There is no evidence that Tolkien read any story other than the one included in the anthology de Camp gave him. Besides, de Camp is the only source for this, and even he said "rather liked", which does sound more than a little lukewarm.
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Post by themirrorthief on Jul 6, 2022 18:52:42 GMT -5
tolkein loved Howard, he told me so in a dream...Poe was there too but to drunk to say anything except "quote the raven nevermore," whatever the fluck that means
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Post by mingerganthecat on Jul 7, 2022 2:42:01 GMT -5
There is no evidence that Tolkien read any story other than the one included in the anthology de Camp gave him. Besides, de Camp is the only source for this, and even he said "rather liked", which does sound more than a little lukewarm.
tolkein loved Howard, he told me so in a dream...Poe was there too but to drunk to say anything except "quote the raven nevermore," whatever the fluck that means Mirror sounds like his sources are more trustworthy than Ninga's. |
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Post by themirrorthief on Jul 8, 2022 9:44:16 GMT -5
my sources are visions I see at the bottom of empty Jack Daniels bottles
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Post by Char-Vell on Jul 9, 2022 17:28:12 GMT -5
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