Mark Twain loved gadgets and would buy the latest thing when it came out. When typewriters hit the market, he was among the first to buy one for the then outrageous price of $125 (more than $2,150 in today's money.) Twain was also the first author ever to submit a typewritten manuscript to a publisher. It was 1833 and the book was Life on the Mississippi.
Twain used the "hunt and peck" typing method. He didn't know the touch-typing system of using all the fingers. Nobody did, because it wouldn't be invented for another quarter century. Twain eventually traded his Remington typewriter for a $12 saddle.
Erin Barrett and Jack Mingo, It Takes a Certain Type To Be a Writer, 2003
Twain used the "hunt and peck" typing method. He didn't know the touch-typing system of using all the fingers. Nobody did, because it wouldn't be invented for another quarter century. Twain eventually traded his Remington typewriter for a $12 saddle.
Erin Barrett and Jack Mingo, It Takes a Certain Type To Be a Writer, 2003
Wouldn't Mark Twain have loved computers?
ReplyDeleteYes, word processing changed everything for the better.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly did! It enabled me to keep on writing even with some hellacious arthritis in my hands! I can't draw any more, but oh, well.....
ReplyDelete