I used to have a lot of those silly old things. Now I only have this one because I could not bear to get rid of it when I cleaned house.
It’s a 1935 Royal DeLuxe that was owned by a dear old friend of mine who passed away in 2007 at the age of 73. He was a low-key downeast Maine teacher and scholar, and without him I probably wouldn’t have ended up in the United States.
From what I know, his mother bought the typewriter new in the 1930s and passed it down to him. After he died, his sister held a yard sale with his old things, and she let me pick something as a memento. I chose the old Royal.
I had not taken it out of the case since shortly after I got it 14 years ago, but I dusted it off today, and what do you know? It still works just fine.
Was his name David? I think you posted something about him at the time, a poignant moment.
Ever thought about drafting a chapter for one of your books with it? I can always appreciate a classic typewriter. Reminds me of Art Deco style. I one day wish to acquire a novelty like that.
I drafted several chapters of the original TERMS OF ENLISTMENT draft with an Olympia typewriter I owned at the time. I haven’t used a typewriter for fiction-writing since, but I may just bang out a chapter or two on this thing once I start the next book.
On another author’s blog, now he has finished is first series, he’s going back over the each novel and posting interesting things about the books, the publishing, his life at the time, etc. It’s pretty interesting. If you did something similar in the future I would love to read it.
I’ll get to that as soon as I can remember all those things. I wrote the first two or three novels while the kids were little and I was a full-time dad, and everything from that time is a bit of a blur, to be honest.
I have my grandfather’s adding machine that he used for his lumber business receipts. It works great. It’s fun to have these classic machines as remembrances of loved ones and friends.
It’s a beautiful, what’s the term, centerpiece? I like antiques on display. And if there’s ever a power failure (or huge solar flare), you can still put thought to paper.
Thanks for the story, and the poem.