0 Typewriter Galleries » Hunter: Daniel Stephens
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I am a life-long typewriter lover and collector. The first typewriter I fell in love with was a 1940s or 50s era Royal in navy green. It was a hulking beast and likely weighed as much as my 8 year old self. It was my grandmothers and lived in her little office off the living room of their house outside of Washington, D.C.. I banged and banged on that thing - I've no idea how my grandparents put up with the racket. When I was twelve I bought my first typewriter from a little antique shop on the corner of Decatur and Dumaine in the French Quarter, New Orleans. It was a little green portable Smith Corona Corsair in perfect condition. I think I paid five dollars for it. I wore out that first ribbon such that it was left inkless and mangled. When I went to college I left it behind - by then I was writing papers on my Amiga 1000 and the little Smith Corona just sat in the corner of my room at home looking sleek but perhaps a little sad. I was typewriter-less for, perhaps a decade when in my late twenties I fell in love again with another little Remington ten-forty that I rescued from the dump. It needed a lot of love and repair work - so I learned how to take it apart, clean it up, replace missing springs and screws and bring it back to a happy state. I still have that little machine and I've found a host of friends for it over the intervening years. Right now I'm loving my drab brown Olivetti Lettera 22 and an IBM Selectric III.