A New Typewriter Book

Excited to announce I will be launching a new typewriter book at the Australian Typewriter Collectors' Convention 2026 at Wollstonecraft in Sydney on September 26.

It's called "Typing for Oz: Australians and Their Typewriters" and it is my first typewriter book since "101 Great Typewriters" came out for the exhibition here in Canberra in 2012.

This new book captures much of the history of the typewriter in Australia, with chapters on:

Our First Typist

Our First Typewriter Inventor

Our First Typing Teacher

Our First War Correspondent

and so on ...

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/australian-typewriter-collectors-convention-2026-tickets-1995574548193?utm_id=97758_v0_s00_e0_tv2_a1dennhb5mt50h&fbclid=IwY2xjawTzJsxwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMW1FRHhtOW1BOXFZcUx4MHhzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeEZvI4cO3CRKRSi39OBkOZhTQXTaHcVHG-VouSd98NMqKYlYvWBEpZllyGjg_aem_LpiBjnHuROX3jM_rjHGN2Q

The Royal Portable Typewriter That Had Seen Action From Haight-Ashbury to the Sinai Desert

A client brought his late uncle's 1927 Royal portable into the workshop this morning (serial number P32950). The machine itself is in almost immaculate condition, though I've never seen such moldy, rotting ribbon. The case is also a mess and glued to the front of it was this wonderful Doonesbury cartoon strip from Garry Trudeau - about Washington Post reporter Rick Redfern being issued with a much-used Royal portable to cover a Jimmy Carter trip to Lagos. To repair the case I had to remove the strip, which was in bits, but with some detective work I was able to track the same one down to 'The Canberra Times' of April 4, 1978, the day before my 30th birthday. This one was part of an hilarious series by Trudeau relating to news coverage of Carter's visit to Nigeria, from March 31-April 3, 1978.

Underwood Universal Portable Typewriter in 'The Glass Menagerie'?

Around the time my dear friend Geoffrey Borny announced he was to direct a season of the Canberra Rep’s The Glass Menagerie, I chanced upon a copy of the 1978 book The World of Tennessee Williams, edited by Richard E. Leavitt. In it was a photograph of Williams at a typewriter I hadn’t seen before - and that was unusual. In his exhaustive list of writers and their typewriters on his ‘Classic Typewriter Page’, the great Cincinnati typewriter historian Richard Polt says of Williams, “This man loved to have himself photographed with his writing machines!” And between the two of us (that is, Richard and myself) we have published images of Williams using at least a dozen different typewriters. All except for this one.

Anyway, in his planning for the Canberra Rep production of The Glass Menagerie, Geoffrey decided to incorporate a portable typewriter in the set design. So of course he approached me to provide a machine for Jamie Johnston, who was to play Laura Wingfield, a character who had, unbeknown to her mother Amanda, opted out of a secretarial course but was still practising typing at home. (Geoffrey, by the way has been a “typewriter spotter” for me for many years.)

Although it is not one of the typewriters Williams was photographed using, Geoffrey’s choice of a 1938 Underwood Universal was spot-on, given when The Glass Menagerie was written and when it was set.

We attended the final night of the Canberra Rep’s The Glass Menagerie last night, and it was superb. Well done all, but most especially Geoffrey Borny.