Witness the Classic Manual Typewriter for sale at Hammacher Schlemmer, a catalog retailer in the U.S.. Priced at $199.95 and sporting a profile not at all dissimilar to a late-model Brother, this machine is supposedly newly manufactured, "not refurbished" (as the catalog proudly states.)
Just for comparison's sake, here's my own machine: $3 from the thrift store, plus a can of automotive paint:
I bet $199.95 spent at someplace like Cambridge Typewriter will get you a better machine than this new "Royal" whatever-it-is, and will actually last, too.
Winnipeg poet Christoff Engbrecht owns between 30 and 40 typewriters, all manual, some of them dating back a century. The click-clack-ding and the spooled ribbons, ink-smudged fingers and tangible byproduct of all that clacking turn the writing process into both an auditory and visual experience, he says. "It's like you're seeing writing happen."
Engbrecht, 37, is one half (along with David Streit) of the "writing-event collective" Poor Tree, which uses old typewriters and portable turntables to create their sound art. He and Streit will co-write (alternating lines on their respective typewriters) and then read aloud their poems onstage, sometimes alongside live musicians.
You name a subject, you name a price, and Knowles writes you a poem. ... "I love typewriters, because I purchase them from antique stores and I imagine all of the owners who pressed the keys before me, and how many letters, stories or words that it produced. They have a positive energy."
Max Lupo of Barrie, ON, built this rig
by which three people can cooperatively type out “it is as it is” using
four key-punchers and a space bar presser.
OK Max, you've proven your skills. Now let's see you rig up something to type my novel for me next November.
