The typewriter century: a cultural history of writing practices

This book captures the intensity of the relationship between writers and their typewriters from the 1880s, when the machine was first commercialized, to the 1980s, when word-processing superseded it. Drawing on examples from the United States, Britain, Europe, and Australia, The Typewriter Century f...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lyons, Martyn 1946- (Author)
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: Toronto ; Buffalo ; London University of Toronto Press [2021]
Series:Studies in book and print culture 46
Subjects:
Online Access:DE-12
DE-1043
DE-1046
DE-858
DE-859
DE-860
DE-Y7
DE-473
DE-739
URL des Erstveröffentlichers
Summary:This book captures the intensity of the relationship between writers and their typewriters from the 1880s, when the machine was first commercialized, to the 1980s, when word-processing superseded it. Drawing on examples from the United States, Britain, Europe, and Australia, The Typewriter Century focuses on "celebrity writers," including Henry James, Jack Kerouac, Agatha Christie, Georges Simenon, and Erle Stanley Gardner, who wrote prolifically and mechanically, developing routines in which typing, handwriting, and dictation were each allotted important functions. The typewriter de-personalized the text; the office typewriter bureaucratized it. At the same time, some authors found a new and disturbing distance between themselves and their compositions while others believed the typewriter facilitated spontaneous and automatic typing. The Typewriter Century provides a cultural history of the typewriter, outlining the ways in which it can be considered an agent of change as well as demonstrating how it influenced all writers, canonical and otherwise
Physical Description:1 Online-Ressource (x, 261 Seiten) Illustrationen
ISBN:9781487537821
9781487537838
DOI:10.3138/9781487537821

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