Selected Typewriters

Hermes 3000, 1965, Switzerland

I bought this on eBay for just over $100 in 2013 a week before our first Short Order Poem event. The seller claimed that he was the original owner and had purchased it while stationed in Germany in the ‘60s. It’s my favorite typewriter, not only because I love the sea-foam green keys but because its action is almost perfection. 

Royal R 700 / Adler Universal 200, 1975, Western Germany

This typewriter belonged to the acclaimed late writer Jan Wahl, who wrote more than 100 picture books in his career. Penny Candy Books published Jan’s final work, Hedy and her Amazing Invention, in February of 2019, a week after he died. He was a curious and sweet man, who loved having phone conversations and writing letters, who never learned how to drive a car, who never even owned a computer. He and I corresponded via typewritten letters while we worked on Hedy—him writing on this Royal/Adler and me on my Hermes 3000. His brothers wanted me to have this typewriter when he died, and so this big, ugly, brown behemoth came into my possession. It’s the only typewriter I own that has a degree symbol, and its 14-inch carried comes in handy when doing larger pieces or rotating work.

Remington Rand Model 17, extra-wide carriage, 1940s, USA

This is one of the oldest machines I own and it’s definitely the biggest. Its 20-inch carriage is allows me to create with wider paper than the typical typewriter. I bought this one from a legacy oil-and-gas company in Dallas, TX, who had used it in their accounting department for years. A typewriter friend of mine who lives in the DFW area picked it up for me and got it working again. I’m sure glad he did. It weighs about 41 pounds. 

Olivetti Studio 44, 1966, Italy

I purchased this one on eBay when Short Order Poems was gearing up to do an event with the Ralph Ellison Foundation. Made in Ivrea, Italy, this machine has a special significance for me personally, as it’s the model that Ellison (who like me is from Oklahoma City, OK) used when he was a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome from 1955 to 1957. A famous picture of Ellison from Life Magazine in December 1957 shows him typing on his Studio 44 just outside his quarters at the Academy’s Villa Aurelia.

Smith Corona Clipper, 1954, USA

I don’t remember where or how or when I came to own this one, but I’m glad I do. You could probably drop this one from a building (or throw it out of a car like Ed Ruscha (another Oklahoma City native) did in his work Royal Road Test) and it would still survive. The first typewriter I ever owned was a Smith Corona—a 1960s Skyriter I bought for $15 from a Goodwill store in Cincinnati. That one (sigh) is no longer with me.

Corona Standard with Greek alphabet layout, 1943, USA

This is the first working typewriter with a non-English alphabet that I owned. There’s been an explosion in typewriter dealers in the past couple years, folks who break down and then build back up vintage machines, making them as good as new. I bought this one from the amazing Lucas Dul at Chicago Typewriter. I do own another typewriter with a non-English alphabet, a new, plastic, Chinese-made one with an Arabic layout, but it never worked properly. That one was given to me by an underwriter friend who found it in a bazaar in Medina, Saudi Arabia, and shipped it to me all the way from Switzerland, where he lived and worked. That Arabic typewriter had a manufacturing flaw that prevented the keys from striking the platen. So I took it apart, salvaged the keys, and now use them for hand-pressed work. 

Olympia SF De Luxe with Ukrainian Cyrillic
alphabet layout, 1965, Western Germany

When I visit new places, I have a habit of checking Craigslist to see if anyone is selling typewriters. I found this amazing little machine outside Boston when visiting my in-laws in the summer of 2021. Apparently there’s a large Ukrainian community in and around Boston. The seller said it belonged to her uncle, a journalist in Ukraine. She asked what I was going to do with it, and I told her “make art.” 

Olympia SM-7 De Luxe, 1961, Western Germany

A neighbor gave me her college typewriter because she heard I collected them. That’s the beautiful thing about liking typewriters. Sometimes an older neighbor will just give you one. That’s happened to me four times now! 

Olympia SM-7 with italic font, 1964, Western Germany

I honestly don’t remember where I found this one. I think it was at a random garage sale in Mustang, OK. I use it a lot in my work because this particular italic font swerves and swoops in a way that makes interesting patterns when overtyping.