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The Typewriter Century: A Cultural History of Writing Practices (Studies in Book and Print Culture)
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About The Typewriter Century: A Cultural History Of
Product Description 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and their typewriters from the 1880s, when the machine was first commercialized, to the 1980s, when word-processing superseded it.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. Review "The Typewriter Century convincingly brings together currently segregated strands of research on print technology, modernist style in terms of formalist literary criticism, and authorship informed by the rise of cultural studies. Martyn Lyons has a longstanding reputation in the history of reading and writing practices, and his case studies are supported with meticulous archival research." -- Shafquat Towheed, The Open University "One has to admit that the typewriter can be traced in every single country with different sources everywhere. Provoking the reader’s mindset, this book is informative, well written, and original. Students in literature, communication studies, media studies, and book studies will appreciate this book a lot – for the typewriter is an anomaly to them." -- Lisa Kuitert, University of Amsterdam About the Author Martyn Lyons is an emeritus professor of History & European Studies at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.
