I picked this little beauty up from a junk store in downtown Denton, TX back in 1994 or 95, for the princely sum of $18, and proceeded to write some horrid, Ginsberg- and Kerouac-inspired teenage poetry (or “poe-tree” as I called it) on it. At that time, it was coming on 40 years old. Now, it’s heading towards 62 years old, and still going strong. It’s missing the spring or lever that makes the backspace key work, but everything else mostly fine, though it could probably use a good CLA if I’m being honest.
I took it with me to IL and wrote my unfinished “Notes on Painting” (inspired partly by a Claes Oldenberg piece) on it;* then to NY where I wrote some slightly better, but still horrid, free verse on it. It’s mostly sat in a closet since, though I recently pulled it out to add some extra analog-y goodness to photographs that I send off to people.
I recently looked them up, and these typewriters go for $150-175 now…
It’s a really beautiful machine, and deserves much better treatment than I gave it here, and much more use than it gets from me, but oh well, and I have no intention of selling it just yet.
Shot on Ilford FP4+ at EI 200 on the Yashica-MAT 124, and developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 18 minutes.
*Don’t ask.
