My Manual Typewriter

The things we keep

It was at a yard sale somewhere. That’s where I bought it. Or maybe it was an antique shop someplace. I don’t remember. The portable Royal manual came in its own hard-leather carrying case, the outside stained from someone’s black coffee or spilled wine. When I opened it, the machine’s slim style tricked me into believing it was rather lightweight. It wasn’t — all gray steel and the heft of a big stack of hardback books. And it worked like new. The keys tapped with precision and sprung back like magic. The ribbon was worn but there was enough ink to allow to me type out a few words as a test of its abilities.

i write these words to see if this thing still has it

I bought it for — what was it? — $5?

The typewriter has been with me for more than twenty years, and I can’t imagine it not being near, although its keys have produced no more than some 120 of my own words. I’ve written eight books and countless essays and stories. Not one on the Royal, only two short poems that I’ve taped to the wall of my writing shed. Since 2017, when I wrote those poems, the typewriter has sat silent on a shelf behind my desk, as it had for many years before those verses were written.

The typewriter was once one of Royal’s most popular. The Quiet DeLuxe. One of Hemingway’s favorites. The first rendition was manufactured in 1938 and was produced most every year until 1959, with only a short gap during WWII. From what I can gather, my Royal is circa 1940.

I had a couple of other manual typewriters years ago, also Royals. They were from the 1920s, but they didn’t work well and would have required expensive love and care. I sold or gave those away, I can’t recall. But the Quiet DeLuxe remains.

Why do we keep what we keep?

The other day, my wife emailed the link of a year-old Ann Patchett essay from the The New Yorker entitled “How to Practice.” We had been considering a road trip from Chicago to Denver where my wife’s daughter lives to drop off a family treasure, an extensive collection of Wedgewood china — settings for twelve, gravy bowl, the works —…

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