TypeTown #44: “I have entirely stopped using the typewriter.”
✍️ Mark Twain and the first novel produced on the type slugs
Welcome, welcome.
Today we start, fittingly, at the beginning.
As far as we know, Mark Twain was the first person to use a typewriter in the writing of a novel. Remarkably, though, there is doubt about which novel it was.
Twain claimed Tom Sawyer, dictated to a typist working on his newly-purchased Remington in 1875, was the history maker.
Some historians, however, believe Life on the Mississippi and its typewritten manuscript of 1883 fired the starting gun on more than a century of literary slug bashing.
Either way, his place in typewriter history is assured.
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
Despite this, he wasn’t a fan of the new invention — at least not in the early years.
“After a year or two, I found that it was degrading my character.”
He was so put off, he even wrote to E. Remington & Sons in 1875 to request a publicity blackout.
“Please do not use my name in any way. Please do not even divulge the fact that I own a machine. I have entirely stopped using the Typewriter… I don’t want people to know I own this curiosity-breeding little joker.”
Born Samuel Clemens in November 1835, Twain worked as a printer, typesetter, pilot, and journalist before his switch to fiction.
“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.”
What followed was a collection of work still regarded as among the finest in American literary history.
Tom Sawyer preceded Huckleberry Finn. Others, like The Mysterious Stranger, only came to light six years after his death in 1910.
“Write without pay until someone offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look up on this as a sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for.”
For a man of the 19th century, Twain was remarkably well traveled.
He spent his formative years in Missouri before working through his early adulthood in New York, Philadelphia, St Louis, and Cincinnati.
Later in life, spells in Nevada, San Francisco, and Connecticut followed.
And that was just in the US.
He also visited Berlin, Florence, Paris, London, Vienna, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto. And a lecture tour in 1895 took in Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, India, Mauritius, and South Africa.
Even today, very few see the full extent of the world like Twain.
“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
READ» The first writing machines - The Literature Network
READ» Twain’s typewriter nearly drove him bonkers - The Columbus Dispatch
READ» A life lived in a rapidly changing world: Samuel L. Clemens, 1835-1910 - The Mark Twain House and Museum
TypeTown is free — and always will be. But it’s not cheap, in time or effort. If you have the capacity, please consider buying us a coffee.
Worth pausing the platen
📬 Austin typewriter poets lead with love - The Austin Chronicle
📬 Letter-writing enjoys a revival as fans seek connection and a break from screen time - The Journal-Courier
📬 Chinese Typewriter: Lin Yutang and the MingKwai Typewriter - Stanford University
And finally… typewriters in the wild
In this eye-catching piece from London sculptor Kathy Dalwood…
… and in this striking image from Marty Castro.
Until next time
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