The Typewriter Century: A Cultural History of Writing Practices | Martyn Lyns

Martyn Lyons Imagem Thames Hudson
Martyn Lyons | Imagem: Thames & Hudson

Martyn Lyons claims that the role of the typewriter in modernization has been taken for granted by cultural historians, a state he aims to correct in The Typewriter Century. Subtitled A Cultural History of Writing Practices, Lyons notes how the introduction of typewriters changed everyday office procedures, but most of his attention is on celebrity writers and their often uneasy relationship with the machine.

Touching on writers from a wide range of genres, including philosophy, social commentary, canonical literature, pulp fiction, children’s stories, crime, and romance, the book provides an entertaining look at how authors made peace — or not — with the typewriter by examining writers’ correspondence, media interviews, advertisements, websites, and blogs. The Typewriter Century provides a feast of anecdotes and interesting facts about writers familiar to bibliophiles; Gustav Flaubert, Jacques Derrida, Jackie Collins, Jack Kerouac, J. K. Rowling, Ezra Pound, and many more names appear in these pages. Leia Mais