If I could buy Cormac McCarthy’s typewriter, I would.

December 1, 2009

Sadly, I haven’t got the 15-20 thousand bucks that Christie’s estimates the trim little Olivetti Lettera 32 will go for at the auction house. But some collector’s going to be very happy that McCarthy’s machine broke down after umpteen million years. After all, as the author says in an authentication letter:

“It has never been serviced or cleaned other than blowing out the dust with a service station hose. … I have typed on this typewriter every book I have written including three not published. Including all drafts and correspondence I would put this at about five million words over a period of 50 years.”

Some mountainous, monumental work has been typed out on that little Olivetti. Kind of breathtaking, isn’t it? As someone who (mostly) grew up with word processors and computers, I can only look at these typewriters, lovely as they are, and wonder how anyone had the patience to be a writer while using one of those.