Due to the large amount of new information I am finding about mid-century Royals, Smith-Coronas and other portables, I am starting over. My new blog is the Bodemer Typewriter Collection, with a link here ..read more

My analysis of Elusive Butterfly (1965) (the long one is creepier) You might wake up some mornin' To the sound of something moving past your window in the wind (Ladder?) And if you're quick enough to rise You'll catch a fleeting glimpse of someone's fading shadow (He noticed that she saw him?) Out on the new horizon You may see the floating motion of a distant pair of wings And if the sleep has left your ears (he knows she was sleeping) You might hear footsteps running through an open meadow (he's running across the front lawn?) Don't be concerned, it will not harm you (He says "it". Does th ..read more

This is my favorite portable typewriter. Manufactured in Portugal, this is one of the last full-sized Royal Portable typewriters. Note the Hermes style keys ..read more

I promise not to use my blog too much to try to sell pens, but I am really proud of this ad ..read more

The Office, 11/1963 162-163 Atlas Deluxe portable typewriter (November, 1963) The Office, 3/1963 227-228 Brother 880 (zipper case) The Office, 10/1964 181-182 Smith-Corona Galaxie II (October, 1964) The Office, 7/1965 Brother Prestige The Office, 12/1965 , pages 117-118, Nippo P-100 The Office, 6/1966 page 153 Olivetti Lettera 33 The Office, 7/66, page 125 Olivetti Lettera 31 The Office, 2/1967, Smith-Corona Power-Space, based on "Geneva spring mechanism of clocks" The Office, 9/1969 page 166 Olivetti Studio 45 The Office ,11/1970, page 118 Adler Contessa ..read more

What do you do with the body of a 1960s Olympia SF with a trashed mechanism, and the mechanism of a 1970s SF with beat-up body panels? The Twolympia Mk II is my result Special thanks to Richard Polt for creating the original Twolympia, using an SM9 mechanism in an SM3 shell ..read more

Originally appeared on this blog on 1/18/2013 The story of the Royal Mercury began in Tokyo, Japan in 1965. A knitting-machine company, called Silver-Reed had designed a typewriter, with the help of a leading industrial design firm, called GK-Design Group. Early models of Silver-Reed portables can occasionally be found in the United States; those marketed as “Royal” typewriters are much more common. It should be noted that by 1971, the only typewriter manufacturer that was still making typewriters in the United States was Smith-Corona. The Royal Mercury has the distinction of being ..read more

This is one of the best fountain pens I've ever used. It was manufactured around 1963 (when all Sheaffer Imperials were given the name "Lifetime" to commemorate the reintroduction of the Lifetime Guarantee). The trim is 14K gold, and it works beautifully. It has the same amazing feel of the Sheaffer NoNonsense and Cartridge pens, and is cartridge-filled (I am clumsy enough that I know an inkwell is a terrible idea...a man must know his limitations.). The feel of a pen is highly subjective, but this one just feels right to me (in the same way that a Ballograf feels right for a ballpoint).  ..read more

This is one of my all-time favorite typewriters, from its styling to its performance. I won it in a Goodwill Ebay auction on June 1, 2016, for $22.46. Since then, I've cleaned and oiled it, and got a new instruction manual for it (thanks, Greg Fudacz!) It is the smoothest running portable I've ever owned, especially for a compact. I love its imitation leather styling, and vibrant red case!  The Olivetti-Underwood Lettera 33 was introduced in 1967, to supplement Olivetti's Lettera 32 line.  I found few advertisements for the Lettera 33 (one from The Bon Marche advertising a "Lettera ..read more

Here is the rough start of a project I am working on--a complete history of the American portable typewriter market: Royal Portable Typewriters, 1926-1940 In the early twenties, three of the four major typewriter manufacturers had a portable typewriter in their lineup. Remington introduced the first four-bank portable in 1920. Corona introduced the first widely-available portable typewriter in 1907 (which became known as the Corona in 1914) and their first four-bank portable typewriter in 1924. Underwood introduced their first portable in 1913, which like the Corona, offered a three-row ..read more