TypeTown #12: "Does it sound all right? Is it good?"
🍊 Anthony Burgess, WRDSMTH, Joy Williams, Madeleine Albright, and more...
Howdy, howdy.
Ever get homesick?
We’re now nine months into our Canadian adventure and halfway to our scheduled return to Manchester.
Thoughts of which quickly surfaced with news that the typewriter owned by
Anthony Burgess
, the Manc-born author of the 1962 dystopian novel
A Clockwork Orange
, was on display last week and will be heading out again 25-29 April.
What a beauty!
Just the kind of machine we’d expect from someone who poses for a portrait with their partner lounging in the background.
“If you are writing on the typewriter, you tend to get the sentence in your head first as a piece of music. Does it sound all right? Is it good?”
If by any chance the exhibition is revived in 2023, I’ll make sure to report back.
READ»
New exhibition: Anthony Burgess’s Typewriters
- The International Anthony Burgess Foundation
READ»
The Clockwork Condition
- The New Yorker
READ»
Inside the archive: Anthony Burgess and his typewriters
- The International Anthony Burgess Foundation
The writing’s on the wall
Roam the streets of LA or London and chances are high you’ll eventually encounter some eye-catching typewriter street art from
WRDSMTH
.
A writer by trade, he admits he wasn’t always sure he could make the leap into street art.
“The funny thing is that I didn’t think I could do it. I thought superheroes did it.”
Then inspiration struck.
“When I got the idea of a painted typewriter with a page coming out of it, I got really excited. The moment I sprayed that typewriter, the moment I repasted that page, I was gone.”
The rest, they say, is history.
“There was a thrill for me that I could create words, I could polish them, I could deem them ready for the streets, put them up and see what happens.”
Want to know more?
Put the kettle on, sink into a comfy chair, and settle down with this little lot:
READ»
New WRDSMITH Street Art around Shoreditch
- London Calling Blog
WATCH»
DEV Channel profiles WRDSMITH...
(3mins 45secs)
WATCH»
WRDSMTH “How to Build an Art Career While Inspiring the World”
(8mins 8secs)
WATCH»
The Stay at Home Series with WRDSMTH
(32mins 25secs)
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The Joy of text
Question:
what do you get when you cross a Pulitzer Prize nominated author with the excitement of a new Hermes 3000?
Answer:
this delightful interview with Joy Williams, conducted entirely by typewriter and complete with handwritten annotations and the obligatory rows of xxxxxxxx.
Enjoy!
READ»
“Maybe More People Should Have Writer’s Block.” In Which Joy Williams Responds to Our Questions Via Typewriter
- Literary Hub
A trailblazer crafted on the keys of a typewriter
News of Madeleine Albright’s passing generated
tributes
from far and wide.
Like most senior political figures, Albright was an accomplished thinker.
Long before she rose to become the United States’ first female Secretary of State, she was learning to piece together her ideas in time-honoured fashion: on the keys of a typewriter.
In the mid 1950s, just before she started studying at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, her father agreed to buy her first machine.
During her college years, she worked on the student newspaper and covered Sen. John F. Kennedy’s reelection campaign — her first brush with politics and the career that would eventually secure her place in history.
Just five years ago, she was still paying tribute to the power of the typewriter when she attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner wearing a typewriter broche.
RIP Madeleine.
READ»
Madeleine Albright obituary
- The Guardian
READ»
Political Issue: The Madeleine Albright Interview
- Vogue
READ»
Remembering Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Korbel Albright ’59
- Wellesley College
Worth pausing the platen
📬
The Mystery of the Arabic Typewriter
—
Egyptian Streets
📬
King of the keys: Typewriter repairman opens Goodlettsville store
—
Main Street Nashville
📬
Longmont man brings community together to replace antique typewriter lost in fire
—
Longmont Times-Call
📬
‘Not much business’ in the typewriter trade these days in Hamilton
—
The Hamilton Spectator
And finally… typewriters in the wild
In this work from French stencil graffiti artist
Jef Aérosol
…
In this magnificent street furniture published by
The Guardian
and credited to
DesignListicle.com
…
And in this tweet direct from the office of Canadian comedian and actor
Tom Green
. Welcome to the club, Tom…
TypeTown… brought to you by caffeine
Many thanks, as ever, for maintaining the flow of Earl Grey. If TypeTown brightens your week, all caffeine is hugely appreciated (especially when a deadline’s approaching).
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Until next time
PS: New here?
TypeTown
is a fortnightly celebration of the typewriter’s place in modern (and not so modern) culture.