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Hello, hello.
Last time out, we featured a
hotel with typewriters hanging on the wall
(which was almost as good as the
typewriter bar
we had in issue 2).
Today we’ve got a more conventional approach to wall decorations, starting with the remarkable work of Brooklyn artist
Sam Messer
.
What a way to brighten up your study (
actor Liev Schreiber owns an original
and here is a list of
Messer’s current available work
).
Messer is Professor Emeritus at the Yale School of Art. He is known in the art world (and, I suspect, among typewriter nerds) for his collection of paintings of Paul Auster’s typewriter.
Check out the colours.
And if there’s still any doubt, this self-portrait confirms the discovery of a kindred spirit.
Ready to get started with the rest of the newsletter?
Let’s go.
Stott off the press: typers galore in Chris’s contemporary realism
Compare and contrast Messer’s work with the hyper-realistic paintings of
Christopher Stott
(that’s right, these are
not
photographs).
Chris is obviously a typewriter fan. On his blog, he takes the time to
write lovingly about this 1958 Hermes 3000
.
“This is good. Really good.”
If you’ve plenty of spare cash lying around,
commission Chris on Instagram
.
Wood you believe it?
As far as wooden sculptures go, Fumio Yoshimura’s
Alger Hiss’s Woodstock Typewriter
is something to behold (
read more about Alger Hiss here
).
Yoshimura clearly got the typer bug. Three years later, in 1973,
this awesome Corona
also emerged.
The art of disconnection
Poet Mary Ruefle has a website — but no computer
Some of us are just not made for 21st-century life.
For many, emails ping, ping, ping on our phones like the Morse code of distraction.
Vermont Poet Laureate
Mary Ruefle
takes a
different approach
.
“I write by hand on paper, and then I type the poem on a typewriter, and then I pay someone to put it into their computer. If you asked me to email you a poem, I couldn’t, because I’m not hooked up.”
And if you ever want to talk to Ruefle, well, good luck. Here’s her website’s
contact page
.
(h/t Mason Currey’s fascinating
Subtle Maneuvers
newsletter)
Worth pausing the platen
📬
The Typing Life: How writers used to write
—
The New Yorker
📬
Minnesota’s typewriter fans are still clacking after all these years
—
Star Tribune
📬
Unloved typewriters to be given new lease of life with launch of Otley club
—
The Wharfedale Observer
Share the word
If you’re enjoying this issue of
TypeTown
, please do share it by social media, email, carrier pigeon or even in a good, old-fashioned, typewritten letter. Thank you!
And finally… typewriters in the wild
In this fascinating early 1970s profile of Texas journalist and sportswriter William Forrest ‘Blackie’ Sherrod (
read his obituary here
)…
Against a wall of a cabin
somewhere, someplace (good luck repairing that)…
And
in a perfume lab in Warsaw, Poland
, because… well, why not?
Until next time
PS: New here?
TypeTown
is a fortnightly celebration of the typewriter’s place in modern (and not so modern) culture.
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