21 Matching Annotations
  1. Last 7 days
    1. Given my current r/typewriter flair ("typewriters + card index = magic"), I couldn't help but appreciate that Lucas Dul features a 3x5" card index (aka database) of typewriter typefaces in a recent video on the 1896 Williams 3 typewriter: https://youtu.be/T1zzXwB3Xh8?si=K4FeiS-V_aev9_SZ&t=506. Those who have been following along on the typeface front will recognize some of the samples from this small index having been featured in a video on typewriter typefaces at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scrguKgDNIY.

      I'm reminded of a similar card index (or Zettelkasten if you speak German) database of type I saw last year via the Letterform Archive article at Schriftenkartei [Typeface Index], 1958–1971 and a related Flickr version of it at https://www.flickr.com/photos/letterformarchive/albums/72177720310834741/

      Lest you think these sorts of analog office pairings are completely obsolete, I feel compelled to mention that I've recently noticed that Pam Beasley's character had both an IBM typewriter and a metal 1970s/80s era two drawer metal card file behind her desk in the TV series The Office (NBC, 2005-2013).

      If typewriters and card indexes are your sort of thing, I've got a small personal collection as well as some research and writing about them which can be found at https://boffosocko.com/research/zettelkasten-commonplace-books-and-note-taking-collection/#Boxes

      If you follow my collections and work, you know I'm not beyond pairing up a nice typewriter with a card index (or two).

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      Image of a 1948 Royal and a matching Steelcase card index.

      Syndication link: https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1e5u5z3/era_appropriate_database_for_typewriter_typefaces/

  2. Jul 2024
    1. The timing was less than ideal. His previous works had all proved “dismal financial flops,” as he said in 1950. He had recently secured an appointment at Cornell University as an associate professor of Russian literature. For the first time in two decades, the couple found themselves in the neighborhood of financial security. If ever there had been a time when Mrs. Nabokov should have discouraged her husband from working on what seemed an unsellable manuscript, it was 1949.

      Nabokov began teaching at Cornell in 1948 and must have been relatively financially well-off enough to afford the roughly $95 ($1,248 in 2024 dollars) for a brand new Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter.

      The typewriter is pictured at the top of the article in a photo from a 1958 photo shoot. Presumably he bought it contemporaneously, though may have gotten it used after its release in 1949. The model changed in mid-1950.

  3. Jun 2024
    1. https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/nabokov.jpeg via https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/typers.html

      This photo, similar to others in the Carl Mydans series for LIFE Magazine is surely from his September 1958 photo series, though I couldn't find an original from the LIFE archive.

      Nabokov, reading off of index cards in his zettelkasten, dictates to his wife Vera who is typing on what appears to be a 1949 or 1950 Henry Dreyfuss Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter.

      Notice metal strip on the back of the typewriter with small rectangular blocks. This is the Royal's tabulator set up which distinguishes the Quiet De Luxe model from the Arrow model.

      The body styling of this typewriter changed in 1950 from Dreyfuss' original 1948 design. Because it's light gray it has to be from '49 or '50 as the '48 original was a black body with dark gray highlights and didn't have chrome across the front as this one does in an alternate angle.

    1. https://images.google.com/hosted/life/2bff56953d14c9d9.html

      Nabokov, reflected in a mirror off camera, dictating his writing from index cards to his wife Vera who is typing on what appears to be a 1949 or 1950 Henry Dreyfuss Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter.

      Notice the chrome on the front of the machine which is sitting in its bottom case shell.

  4. May 2024
    1. I’m certainly happy they decided to trust us to service this delightful QDL. According to the serial number RA-2961306 this machine is from the year 1954.

      The anniversary gold plated Royal QDLs included gold plated type points, levers, and even set screws on the platens.

    2. I’ve seen plenty Royal Dreyfuss Quiet DeLuxe typewriters that are the gold metal plated anniversary edition.

      Example of a typewriter repairman calling a 1954 model a Royal Dreyfuss Quiet De Luxe.

      While they did have some of the general design elements of Henry Dreyfuss' 1948 redesign, would one really still call them a Dreyfuss?

    1. Royal Typewriter Platen Variable Repair, Roller Removal by [[Phoenix Typewriter]]

      I'm seeing this issue on my 1949 Royal QDL. I figured it'd be an easy fix.

      Turns out, it was exactly my issue and the pieces had "frozen up". A quick clean out and we're back in business in under 20 minutes.

  5. Apr 2024
    1. Harry RansomCenter at the University of Texas, which houses Sexton’sletters and memorabilia. And her typewriter.

      Anne Sexton used a Royal Quiet De Luxe (beige)

    2. I have my work cut out for me withHemingway, since he used many type-writers: a gigantic Royal No. 10 desk-top with glass side panels from his earlyKey West days, an Underwood Noise-less that helped him fi nish For Whomthe Bell Tolls and fi le dispatches fromhotel rooms while he was a World WarII correspondent, and black matte Roy-als from the early 1940s—especiallythe Quiet DeLuxe and Arrow—he fa-vored while at Finca Vigía in Cuba.