production began with the “writing
ball” of Danish pastor Rasmus
Malling-Hansen around 1870. is
device looked a lot like a pincushion.
German philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche’s mother gave him one for
Christmas, but he despised it and
went back to using a pen and inkwell.
e rst typewriter to be commercially
successful was patented in
1868 by Christopher Sholes (aka Mr.
Funky Alphabet) and his business
partners, though he would later
disown it. e Caligraph typewriter
(1880) was one of the rst to have a
“full” keyboard and separate keys for
lower- and upper-case letters. e
rst electrically operated typewriter,
consisting of a printing wheel, was
invented by omas Edison in 1872,
and later branched o to become the
ticker-tape printer.
Authors and their Favorites
Authors are as nicky about their
writing tools as they are their use of
commas. Mark Twain supposedly
was the rst author to submit a typed
manuscript, although which script
is not clear. In his autobiography, he
claimed that he was the rst person
in the world to apply the typing machine
to literature, which he remembered
to be “e Adventures of Tom
Sawyer” using a Remington No. 2.
Joel Chandler Harris swore by his
Hammond 2. is typewriter was
rst introduced in 1881. It had mechanical
features that lasted longer
than any typewriter ever made. One
important feature was the capacity
to change type style and size using
a C-shaped piece of hard rubber
placed in the shuttle. It came with a
wooden case. e Hammond 2 was
also a favorite of Helen Keller and
Robert Louis Stevenson.
Flannery O’Connor used a Remington
Deluxe Noiseless Portable
“1941 Line,” which sold new for $60.
e Noiseless used a counterweight
mechanism, allowing the typebars
to print with uniform pressure, so
no matter how hard the typist struck
the keyboard, the impression would
always be the same. It was the same
26 LAKE OCONEE LIVING | SPRING 2022
make and model typewriter used
by Dr. Seuss, William Faulkner, and
poet Langston Hughes.
When Alice Walker left Eatonton
in 1962 to go to Spelman College
in Atlanta, her mother gave her
a Smith-Corona typewriter for
graduation. It would remain Alice’s
preferred typewriter until she nally
switched to a laptop computer. Today
she uses a MacBook Air computer.
Newscaster Walter Cronkite relied
on the Smith-Corona typewriter,
as did Margaret Mead and President
John F. Kennedy.
Raymond Andrews grew up near
Madison. He spent hours pounding
the keys of his blue Smith-Corona
Coronamatic 2200 in a cabin near
Athens that belonged to his brother,
Benny. Andrews’ books were never
commercially successful, but his
literary genius earned him induction
into the Georgia Writers Hall
of Fame. His typewriter was like the
one used by James Baldwin (Andrews
won a James Baldwin Award
for his book, “Appalachee Red”).
Georgia Writers Museum in Eatonton
is excited to announce a special
typewriter display with exhibits of
many typewriters, ranging from an
1893 duplicate of the Hammond 2
used by Joel Chandler Harris to an
Underwood 5 like the one used by
Ernest Hemingway and Carl Sandburg.
ere is also a turn-of-thecentury
book press and mimeograph
machine. e exhibit provides a
detailed history and interesting facts
you never knew about the most glorious
and inventive writing machine.
—Chip R. Bell is the author of
several award-winning, national
bestselling books, and serves on the
board of Georgia Writers Museum
in Eatonton, which celebrates the life
and work of world-renowned Georgia
authors including Alice Walker, Joel
Chandler Harris, Flannery O’Connor,
and Sidney Lanier, and serves as the
home of the Georgia Writers Hall of
Fame.
The Caligraph typewriter (1880), above, was one
of the first to hae a full keyoar.
Flannery O’Connor used a Remington Deluxe
oseless ortale 11 Lne aoe an aymond
Andrews preferred his blue Smith-Corona
Coronamatic 2200, below.
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