What about the classic image of Hunter Thompson pointing a gun at his typewriter? How can you omit the good Doctor???

[...] Vintage-Fotosammlung von berühmten Schriftstellern und ihren Schreibmaschinen bei LIFE und Flavorwire. Feinster Retro-TechPorn. Agatha Christie an der [...]

[...] here. the article starts with, There’s something magical about catching a glimpse of one of your [...]

Ditto to Brian’s comment! I went through the slideshow expecting to see my beloved Hunter Thompson. Great photos, but it’s too bad HST wasn’t included.

No Hunter S. Thompson?

I agree with a few of these comments in reference to the Gonzo journalist himself, I feel Thompson is definitely needed on this list. Other than that though, very good stuff.

No Isaac Asimov?

[...] de escrever, gaúchos, Jennifer Egan e outros links Charmoso estudo fotográfico de uma era extinta: escritores famosos e suas máquinas de escrever: na amostra ao lado, John [...]

I don’t mean to be a pest here, but I’m bothered you don’t bother to credit these photographs — when possible — to the photographers who took them. It’d be relatively easy to do. Clearly many of the photographs are screenshots you lifted from the TIME photo essay on the same subject, and most of those photographs are credited. Photographers work for their photographs and deserve to be given recognition, especially when it’s so easy to do.

No David Goodis?

[...] today I browsed through this photo collection of famous authors and their typewriters. If you haven’t seen it, take a moment to do so. Go ahead, I’ll wait until you get [...]

I agree that the photos should be credited. And really, why are there no photos of HST with his typewriter and Jack Kerouac with his typewriter?

You’ve forgotten Cormac McCarthy and his Olivetti Lettera 32!

Sigh. Faulkner twice? “Just because?” In a set with 4 women writers and 1 person of color? Seriously?

Dr. Gonzo would have something to say about this:

http://FunnyOrDie.com/m/5h0k

Finally, at Tennessee Williams, I see a room/office that looks lived in and used! Who are all these writers with their clean workspaces?! How can you create masterpieces that way. I swear someone came by and collected all their papers and crap before they took the picture!

[...] is Alfred Hitchcock, below, mainly because he appears to be writing on a bar. Check out the rest here. Famous authors and their laptops just doesn’t have the same ring to it, does [...]

I’d be curious to what “typefaces” were on those typewriters. Anyone got a clue?

[...] İlgilenenler için site adresi: http://flavorwire.com/167127/famous-authors-and-their-typewriters  [...]

[...] a lot more about the fantastic machines and their  countless cool features and styles. i love these wonderful photographs of famous authors and songwriters at their [...]

[...] for eons it seems, and the reason I’m writing now is to share something very inspiring from Flavorwire.com — pictures of authors with their typewriters. Here are some of the memorable photos: William [...]

Burroughs is posing by the type writer as is Hitchcock. Burroughs had college students type out his work, the nods are not conducive to working the keys. He paid them in smack. Hitchcock had his secretary scare up screen plays from the typewriter.

There’s a couple of great shots of Stephen King with his typewriter. I have them as postcards.

[...] and Typewriters. By mbolit My book store tweeted about these photographs of authors with their typewriters today, and I thought I’d pass along my favorite: Dorothy [...]

[...] jets deploy over Libya Elizabeth Warren: The most hated woman in corporate America Photos: Writers at their typewriters Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley is revealed to be more a work of fiction than the author [...]

no Hunter S. Thompson shooting his typewriter? what a terrible omission.

Have these photos been bound? This collection would make a brilliant coffee table book for lit geeks.

Thanks, Stephanie. My thoughts precisely. 4 women, 1 POC — and Faulkner twice. What a disservice.

[...] out the full list here, which includes the likes of Sylvia Plath, William S. Burroughs, Charles Bukowski and Ernest [...]

no HST, no Kerouac. santa please

You need more women.

[...] Well before Williamsburg, Famous authors and their typewriters [...]

the Burroughs should be the Bug!!!!

What about Borges, Camus, Marguerite Yourcenar, Chandler, Steinbeck, Sartre, Clarice Lispector or Huxley? Keep going posting!

[...] Magazine recently ran an article ‘In Praise of the Typewriter’, and Flavorwire have kindly curated the images to showcase those that capture writers at work.  I personally love [...]

“In a set with 4 women writers and 1 person of color? Seriously?”

Hate this PC crap. Literature is a meritocracy and doesn’t care what color or gender a person is – however, it does reflect the cultural, and those with more opportunity will produce more. If you go up and down the list of great authors, women and “people of color” are actually probably OVERrepresented in this slideshow. It’s through no fault of their own, but the huge disparity does exist, and all including equal numbers would do is make the disparity even more glaring. You’d be getting some real mediocre women writers and black writers while still having about 1000 great white men authors to go. Sorry if this doesn’t gel with what they taught you at Vassar.

Of all the novelists/wordsmiths Leonard Cohen touched me with his words,
his music and personality. Yes Leonard Cohen for me.

[...] a novel on a typewriter, something I’m sure isn’t done often in this day and age. Here’s a wonderful set of pictures of famous authors at their typewriters. These are the sorts of images that make me want to fire up [...]

HST!?!?

Stephanie said

“Sigh. Faulkner twice? “Just because?” In a set with 4 women writers and 1 person of color? Seriously?”

Which person of color? Seems I’m color blind – which speaks to the success of our American melting pot experiment. Besides 1 out of 16 (excluding musician and actor) is about the same proportion as actual famous authors – especially of that vintage.

4 women of 16 is about the right proportion, too. “Half of humanity” is not equal to “half of famous writers”.

“These are the sorts of images that make me want to fire up”

I’ll drink to that!

Amazing, solitary, thoughtful, inspiring pictures of creativity in action!

Thanks for posting!

About halfway through I started smiling from ear to ear. I haven’t stopped.

Thank you.

[...] – and that there’s so much romantically-black-and-white evidence of that fact. Check out this slideshow of “Famous Authors and their [...]

[...] Link (via Neatorama) [...]

[...] Faulkner hard at work. Thanks to Flavorwire for having the same idea I have of peeking into the workspaces of writers. This photo originally in [...]

I have to agree with Brian.
Dr. Hunter S. Thompson should have been here.

There’s also a general lack of female writers.

Peace!

[...] Famous authors and their writing machines! [...]

I agree about the PC stuff…the amount of women and POC is what it would have been for the vintage. And yes, many look posed…these were pictures in LIFE magazine, folks, think of the era! Most pics were posed back then…it’s still cool to see the authors in any format. PERIOD. I’d just like to see more. PERIOD.

[...] found this blog post today on Flavorwire that compiled photos of famous authors and their typewriters. Like the post says, there’s [...]

Can you imagine creating in such a tidy space? I couldn’t do it.

[...] 6th, 2011 § Leave a Comment Take a look at the article on flavorwire of Famous Authors and their Typewriters. I tried to find images of either Anais Nin or even Henry [...]

[...] E a Penguin-Companhia não foi a única que resolveu trazer de volta as máquinas de escrever: a Flavorwire juntou fotos de 19 autores posando com esses instrumentos que já foram fundamentais para seu trabalho. [...]

most looked more like composites than actual photos, which explains the absence of photo credits

[...] Fuente [...]

This is Rad

[...] great photo from Flavorwire and Life Magazine. Dorothy Parker at the keyboard in 1937. Do you suppose her magazines were always [...]

[...] great photo from Flavorwire and Life Magazine. Dorothy Parker at the keyboard in 1937. Do you suppose her magazines were always [...]

No Hunter S Thompson; the fisrt image any writers, especially a so called ‘journalist’ would think of, and you include Maroln Brando etc..

[...] propósito do ensaio da Flavorwire sobre escritores e máquinas de escrever (obrigada José Mário pela dica), vale a pena ver a promoção que a Companhia das Letras – [...]

So even if we consider the life mag gallery most of these images seem to have been drawn from, i.e. this idea one should consider the “vintage” or era, there’s the weird exclusion of Nikki Giovanni. Which is to say one would not have had to look all that hard, nor all that long, to find someone else’s image to include other than Faulkner mfing *twice*. And Nikki’s photo is awesome! Looks like she’s standing with some kind of early 70s era processor:

http://www.life.com/gallery/42822/image/2119727#index/27

And even a cursory search of the interwebs turns up photos of James Baldwin and Richard Wright with their typewriters. Uh?

Ugh.

[...] O site Flavorwire montou uma galeria com várias fotos de escritores famosos posando com suas máquinas de escrever. William Faulkner, Agatha Christie e Ernest Hemingway estão por lá. Acesse o site aqui. [...]

[...] romance of the mechanical writing contraptions of yore.  I submit, or rather, pass on, therefore, Flavorwire’s collection of images of word smiths at their machines. Hemingway, apparently, took offence at the [...]

[...] Famous writers and their typewriters. [...]

Cool! I love seeing the faces behind the words I so enjoy.
What isn’t cool is all of the folks so unhappy with themselves who just have to criticize and complain… (kinda like me! oh!)

Check out your local garage sales, you just may find that Olivetti Lettera 22 for $5.

[...] …and speaking of which, thanks so much to Peg for sending me this typewritery goodness! [...]

[...] *Want to see some authors at their typewriters? Here they are. [...]

[...] Mundo Livro, Carlos André Moreira juntou uma galeria de fotos de escritores brasileiros. Escritores famosos e suas máquinas de escrever. O 18º Educar, Congresso internacional de educação 2011 com o tema: “A educação [...]

[...] are pretty great (from Flavorwire, via LIFE Magazine) and seem to me the ultimate in “literary eye candy.”  Why is this? [...]

[...] Famous Authors and Their Typewriters [...]

I’m sad there were so few women and one person of color.

And the people who said “get over it” make me want to puke.

A meritocracy? Are you joking? I know…you’re not. I just wish you were.

Thanks for putting up this fabulous post. I certainly don’t mean to look a gift horse in the mouth. I just do urge you to try to represent these tragically underrepresented populations.

James Baldwin? nikki giovanni? Anne Sexton?

[...] Also – this may be the most inspiring blog post I’ve seen in a rather long time, courtesy of Flavorpill: Famous Authors and Their Typewriters. [...]

Isn’t it wrong to lift the photographs from another source with getting permission and without attributing the photograph? It would seem that just as it is wrong to plagiarize, it is wrong to post a picture without giving credit to the photographer.

Enjoyed seeing photos of some authors I’ve read, others I’ve only heard of. In this era of “living color” it’s refreshing to see these in black and white. The images in black and white in some ways create drama and give even more strength to the subjects.

[...] features a parade of photos and accompanying text of famous writers and their typewriters. After all, what is sexier than someone hunched over a [...]

Elmore Leonard is STILL writing on an IBM Selectric (“still,” as in, he wrote on his IBM Selectric today. He’s hard at work finishing his next novel, “Raylin”). And Brando loved science and had a computer in the early 90s – a Mac – before most people did.

[...] checked out Flavorpill’s Famous Authors and their Typewriters last week and loved many of the photographs they shared with us. The ones of Agatha Christine and [...]

[...] had a fun piece recently, just a series of cool photos, and I recommend you check it out by clicking the [...]

[...] In this trendwatching podcast, Nora Young talks about the uptick in interest in manual typewriters, such as in this New York Times article. Plus, the return of the Commodore 64 (via New York Times Bits blog). Also, check out Life Magazine’s look at writers and their typewriters (via Flavorwire). [...]

I don’t have any photographs, but I do have Bill Mauldin’s typewriter, I think!

I have a Remington Noiseless Portable No. ND- I 73048, with warranty from the Remington Typewriter Company Ltd, 100 Gracechurch Street, London EC3.
It’s complete and in working order, but needs some TLC.

It was my father’s, but I understood that previously it had been Bill Mauldin’s. Certainly a possibility – my father was a chum of Bill’s; I have Mauldin books with Willie/Joe dedications to my father.

I had thought of offering it on Ebay, but perhaps it deserves a more discerning home?

Mike Shepherd-Smith
England

[...] A slideshow of famous authors pictured with their typewriters. Also a slideshow of authors made from their own words. [...]

[...] …More Leave a Comment LikeBe the first to like this post.Leave a Comment [...]

[...] aptly titled ‘First apply the seat of the trousers to the surface of the chair’), had a look at these photos of famous authors and their typewriters, and was much taken by Ruadhán MacCormaic’s portrait of [...]

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

Gotta love him, Hunter Thompson

Best Faulkner quote:
” She existed in that dream state in which you run without moving, from a terror in which you cannot believe towards a safety in which you have no faith.”

William Faulkner
Absolum, Absolum

[...] In fact, many well-known literary works of the late 19th and 20th centuries were composed to the clink-clink-ding music (or cacophony, depending your stance) of typewriters. Mark Twain, thought to be the first to submit a typed manuscript to a publisher, drafted his novels on a 1874 Sholes & Glidden Treadle Model. J.R.R Tolkien traveled to Middle-earth on a Hammond. Richard Wright wrote incisively about race relations in the United States on a 1940s Royal Arrow. A Smith Corona Courier was Kurt Vonnegut’s sidekick while Harper Lee carted around an Underwood portable. Photos of authors with their machines of choice are captured beautifully here and here. [...]

[...] fun writing your weekly shopping list. Maybe you might just write a masterpiece on it like these famous authors did on their typewriters. « My Thrifted Interning [...]

[...] More Accolades for Canada’s Favorite Poet [4] Gig review: The Webb Sisters/Simon Lynge [5] Famous Authors And Their Typewriters [6] Canadian singer Leonard Cohen wins Spanish [...]

[...] Famous Authors And Their Typewriters. “There’s something magical about catching a glimpse of one of your favorite authors at work – even a photo of the epic event can send an anxious thrill down your spine, as if you might be able to see some hint of literary genius in posture or setting, in attire or facial expression. And it’s even better if they’re working on a typewriter.” [...]

[...] This slideshow thrills me—look at wrinkly old Dorothy Parker ignoring that male model! Whatta woman! [...]

[...] Famous Authors and Their Typewriters [...]

fun

Famous Authors And Their Typewriters – Flavorwire…

[...]E a Penguin-Companhia não foi a única que resolveu trazer de volta as máquinas de escrever: a Flavorwire juntou fotos de 19 autores posando com … such as in this New York Times article. Plus, the return of the Commodore 64 (via New York Times Bi…

[...] question de plaire aux nostalgiques, les sites de Flavorwire et du magazine Life viennent de publier deux fascinants dossiers photos montrant de grands auteurs [...]

[...] Flavorwire В» Famous Authors And Their Typewriters May 30, 2011 … And really, why are there no photos of HST with his typewriter and Jack Kerouac with his typewriter? … [...]

[...] A Literary History Of Word Processing And – Picturing 19 Famous Authors And Their Typewriters [...]

Hunter Thompson??

Excellent post! We are linking to this particularly great content on
our site. Keep up the good writing.

[...] Flavorwire » Famous Authors and Their TypewritersDec 25, 2011 … There’s something magical about catching a glimpse of one of your favorite authors at work – even a photo of the epic event can send an … [...]