1974 Olympia SM8 #4716614
Status: My Collection
Hunter: Mark McGrath (mtmcgrath)
Created: 01-16-2024 at 03:34PM
Last Edit: 01-16-2024 at 05:44PM
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Description:
This is the crown jewel of my collection. I purchased this machine in mint condition from mytypewriter.com in 2005. I was a junior in college. It is the first manual typewriter that I ever purchased and the only reason I chose Olympia is because one of my favorite authors, Harlan Ellison, used nothing but Olympias. I love this machine and I've probably used it more than any other that I own. After 16 years of owning it, I took it for its first and only service. Philly Typewriter performed a full cleaning and adjustment and replaced the platen rubber in 2021. This is, for reasons both sentimental and practical, my favorite of the all the typewriters I've ever owned. If I could only have one, it would be this one.
Typeface Specimen:
Photos:
Hunter: Mark McGrath (mtmcgrath)
Mark McGrath's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]
Status: Typewriter Hunter
Points: 89
I'm a typewriter collector and general analog enthusiast. My first typewriter was an IBM Wheelwriter Series II that was given to me by my father when I was 12 years old. In 2005, I purchased my first manual typewriter, a 1974 Olympia SM-8, which I purchased from mytypewriter.com . I still use it daily. It has required only one service in the 18 years that I have owned it, which was performed by Philly Typerwriter in Philadelphia in 2021. Since 2020, I have expanded my collection to a dozen typerwriters of different varieties and manufacturers and have been insprired by a number of typewriter-related content creators on Youtube. The main outlet of my creative endeavors has been a diary that I have kept since my 20th birthday in 2004. I wrote my diary longhand through July 2021. Since August of that year, I have written my diary on my typwriters, increasing my daily word count to 500-1,000 words per day. I think the analog movement is one of the most important social and cultural forces in the world today and I enjoy being a small part of it.
RESEARCH NOTE: When researching the Olympia SM8 on a computer with lots of screen real estate, you may find that launching the Olympia Serial Number page and the Olympia SM8 By Model/Year/Serial page in new browser windows can give you interesting perspectives on changes throughout the model series.
