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Before the days of laptops, tablets, texting and email, people drafted their letters on typewriters. There was no spell-check or delete button and you couldn't perform fancy functions like copy or paste.
While most of the world has moved on to embrace the latest technological upgrades, some remain devoted to the good old-fashioned typewriter. Others, particularly a younger generation, are newly discovering the appeal. The collectors’ market is thriving and some are opting to put aside digital devices to do their creative work on a typewriter.
Here are 11 ways typewriters are becoming cool again.
1. Tom Hanks is a huge fan
Hanks is extremely passionate about typewriters. At one point, he admitted to having over 250 in his personal collection — 90 percent of them in working order. In lieu of a computer, Hanks uses typewriters for the majority of his written communication: “I type almost every day. There is usually a memo I am sending to someone or a question or a thank-you note or an actual response,” he's said, joking that he hates getting email thank-yous and that typewritten letters mean so much more.
Actor Tom Hanks is a typewriter collector and visited owner Kirk Jackson’s Nashville Typewriter shop.
courtesy Kirk Jackson
The two-time Academy Award–winning star wrote a book of short stories, each featuring a typewriter. And he recently visited Nashville Typewriter where he spent three hours with owner Kirk Jackson. “We nerded out over typewriters pretty much the whole time,” Jackson says. “Tom bought two: a Smith Corona Enterprise and an Underwood Four Bank, both green."
Hanks told Jackson he's been giving some of his typewriters to mom-and-pop typewriter shops in recent years to help jump-start business. And he's always trying to inspire those around him to give these vintage typing machines a try. “If somebody says, ‘Geez, I'd like to have a typewriter to write letters,’ I'm there. It's on their desk within 48 hours with a note from me explaining the typewriter to them,” Hanks said during his appearance in the 2016 California Typewriter documentary.
2. Other creative types are embracing them
Best-selling author A.J. Banner says, “I type all my first drafts on typewriters.” This includes her forthcoming book In Another Light, which debuts Oct. 5. She and her husband have more than 100 completely restored and usable machines and even have their own repair guy.
Singer-songwriter John Mayer likes to type his lyrics out on a typewriter, as does Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder. “You're at sort of a safe distance where you can express yourself openly without having to edit yourself at the same time,” Mayer said in the California Typewriter documentary. And two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning writer David McCullough uses his 1960s typewriters to compose manuscripts.
3. Typewriters promote mindfulness and creativity
California Typewriter director Doug Nichol says using a typewriter is a great way for people to focus on a writing task without unnecessary distractions. “When we're on the computer, we can start listening to music or go see what's on Twitter or Facebook, all these other distractions that pull you,” Nichols says. “What's nice about a typewriter is there's nothing except you and that machine and writing."
Paulette Perhach, cofounder of the mindfulness and writing group A Very Important Meeting, calls a typewriter an “anti-distraction machine.”
