Introducing Nevil

Susanna here. Today I’m going to tell you a love story. Not the most conventional of love stories, but it does have a meet-cute, and it happens in Manhattan, and I promise it ends happily.

A couple of weeks before I was due to go down to New York for the Romance Writers of America’s annual conference, I opened my morning paper to find an article by AP journalist Katherine Roth focused (rather wittily) on the “Typewriter’s Return”.

“At the few remaining typewriter repair shops in the country,” she wrote, “business is booming as a younger generation discovers the joy of the feel and sound of the typewriter—and older generations admit they never fell out of love with it.”

One of the typewriter repair shops she profiled in her article was the Gramercy Typewriter Co., founded in the 1932 by the father of the current owner, who now works there with his son and grandson, keeping the family business alive.

Because I had half a cup of coffee left to finish after reading the article, I searched out their website and spent the next half hour happily watching videos like this one:

At this point, my practical brain reasserted itself by reminding me just how excited I’d been when I’d first been able to give up the manual typewriter on which I’d learned to type in exchange for a sleek electric office model, and then how wonderful it had been when the office where I’d worked had given me a machine that used a typing ball in place of the basket-style keys, and THEN how amazing it had been when they’d brought in the self-correcting typewriters (even though I’d still had to use all those differently-coloured correcting fluids when I was typing up carbon copy forms in the office). From there it had been a huge leap forward to those typewriters that had the little window where you could see and correct a line of text before it printed, and then we’d moved on from those to word processors, and computers, and…

I did not need a typewriter.

Still, that weekend at the cottage I kept looking at my writing desk and thinking that it might not be a foolish thing to have a little typewriter up there, in case the power should go off. Because after all, if my computer stopped working, a typewriter would at least let me keep up with the speed of my thoughts…

When I suggested this to my friend Susan, who was visiting me at the cottage that weekend, she gave me the sort of a knowing look only a friend who has known you for most of your life can give you, when they know that you don’t really need a typewriter. She was intrigued, though, by my mention of the Gramercy Typewriter Co., because as it turned out Susan and her husband had a typewriter themselves that had no ribbon. Maybe, she suggested, when I was in New York, I could drop into that shop and see if they might have a ribbon that would fit her old machine?

That, dear readers, is what I call “enabling”. Or “matchmaking”. Whichever.

One week on, and I was finally in Manhattan with an hour to spare, and sitting in the conference hotel bar with Susie Benton— of the senior editors at Sourcebooks, my American publishers—telling her all about my typewriter fixation and my quest to buy a ribbon for my friend, and Susie agreed that this was an entirely understandable fixation, and she joined me on my quest. We hailed a cab.

The Gramercy Typewriter Co. is a small, tidy store on a sidestreet. There was a pink machine in the window that was gorgeous but not for sale, and others inside of all shapes, makes, and colours. They also had typewriter ribbons, which of course was what I’d come to buy.

The sales clerk, Cassie, found me the ribbons I needed, and we set them on the counter…and then I decided it couldn’t possibly hurt to just TRY a typewriter. You know, see what one felt like. Even though I didn’t need one.

The first one that caught my eye—and the one I would have bought if I’d been choosing from photos online—was a robin’s egg blue one with a slight metallic texture that would perfectly coordinate with everything in my cottage. But when Cassie took it down to let me try it, everything felt wrong. It didn’t “fit” my hands.

I think I tried another one, or two. I don’t remember. But I do remember seeing, in a glass case, a small typewriter that looked much too old-fashioned for my needs.

He wasn’t brightly-coloured. He was plain. But when I had a chance to type a line on him, it felt as if his keys had been made just for my fingers.

Cassie could see I liked him, but she thought I might prefer the one next to him in the glass case—a typewriter of the same model and year (a 1929 Royal P) but in a snazzier racing-car red finish, and with its original case. It had been something of a sticking point with a few people, she told me, that “my” typewriter didn’t have a case.

Which made me think, Hold on a minute—do you mean this little typewriter of mine has been REJECTED? That people have come in and tried him out and thought of buying him and changed their minds because he didn’t have a case? Because, if you know me at all, you’ll know this means I’ll only love him more, and want to rescue him and take him home.

So, that’s exactly what I did.

Cassie very carefully wrapped my caseless new companion up in bubblewrap and put him in a tote bag, and Susie and I took him in a taxi back uptown to the conference hotel, and a couple of days later he flew with me home to Canada, after giving the security screener at LaGuardia a memorable moment (she’d been silently watching all the briefcases and handbags go through her scanner, and all of a sudden she burst out, “A typewriter?!”).

But I didn’t take him to the cottage. I felt he might get too lonely up there during the week with no one for company. So now he sits on my desk with my various other tools and treasures.

I have christened him Nevil, in honour of Nevil Shute, one of my most favourite writers.

I did not need a typewriter. But Nevil needed me. And who knows what I’ll write, with his help.

Comments

[Melony Teague]

I love it! I had one of those blue typewriters as a teenager. I don't know what happened to it! (*sad face)

[Brenda Margriet]

Nevil is perfect for him - and I, too, love Nevil Shute. I really need to get a copy of the Pied Piper to read again. That's my favourite, but my copy was in one of those huge hardcover omnibus versions in red fake leather and all the pages fell out and I had to let it go.

My first typewriter cost me almost 300 dollars in the early 1980's and was HALF electric - it had an electric keyboard but manual return. Still not sure what the point of that was. :)

[Pamela DG]

Best Wishes to you and Nevil. I still write by hand when the "Blinking Cursor of Death" is mocking me. Nevil will be patient, just waiting there for your muse to inspire you. No pressure, no impatient blinking as you stare at a blank screen. He'll be a good companion.

[Charlene]

Love this story! Hello, Neville!

[Lillian Marek]

Up in the attic I have my mother's old typewriter. I don't know how old it is — 1930s probably. It's a black portable, and the keys are black with white letters and a metal rim around them.
I can remember when I was a teenager spending summer days on the porch writing romantic stories on that typewriter. It has a permanent place in my heart even though my arthritic fingers would have a hard job typing on it now.

[Jennifer Fanklin]

I used one of those typewriters many many years ago. Nice to meet you Nevil.

[Janice]

I'm not much on manual typewriters - I had a Smith Corona in college and it hurt my fingers - but when I left my job I so wished I had taken my IBM correcting Selectric along with me. Once in a while you meet a machine with perfect touch and it pains to lose it.

[Mary Jo Putney]

LOL! My entire writing career is a direct result of getting my first computer and finding that I could write stories on it because when I fixed something, it STAYED fixed! Nonetheless, I adore Nevil and his story and his happy ending. (Favorite Nevil Shute novel: TRUSTEE FROM THE TOOLROOM.)

[Morgan Tarpley Smith]

I love this so much, Susanna!!! One day when i have a writing desk space I plan to have a typewriter too!! I’ve loved them since i was a kid. My boss at the newspaper only used a manual typewriter up until 10 years ago when his heart surgery left him too sore to type so he had to switch to a computer. It still sits faithfully at his desk though.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Melony, maybe it will come back to you. Susie Benton, from Sourcebooks, also had that exact typewriter (or one very like it), and typing on it at the store brought back a lot of great memories for her.

[Susanna Kearsley]

I've never seen a half-electric typewriter! What an intriguing concept. Sounds like the kind of odd thing we would create back in the 80s, though... :-)

[Susanna Kearsley]

Pamela, I write by hand sometimes, too (especially in the bathtub, when my characters decide to start talking to each other and I have to grab whatever paper is nearby and try to get their dialogue down before I lose it!). But in general, my thoughts move too quickly for my hand to keep up, and I was fortunate enough to have been able to persuade my guidance counsellor in High School to let me take touch-typing (I was in the Academic stream, typing was in the Business stream, and he didn't think I'd need it, so I had to convince him it might come in useful if I ever had to type an essay at university...). So keyboards are the only way I can (almost) keep pace with my thoughts when the words are coming quickly.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Nevil says hello back!

[Susanna Kearsley]

Lillian, one of the fun offshoots of all of this for me has been how much I've learned about old typewriters! There are so many different makes and models, all so individual. Does your typewriter have any maker's name on it?

[Susanna Kearsley]

Nevil says hey, Jennifer :-)

[Susanna Kearsley]

I know exactly what you mean. I typed the first draft of my very first novel on the self-correcting electric typewriter (can't remember the make) from the museum where I was working back in the late 1980s. I do remember it had a cartridge ribbon, because I used to swap out the ribbon cartridge and use my own for the book, so I wouldn't be using museum supplies for personal purposes :-) It was a lovely machine.

[Susanna Kearsley]

I LOVE Trustee from the Toolroom. It is such an underrated classic. My favourite Shute will probably always be A Town Like Alice, because of the romance and because it was the first of his that I ever read, and because it's probably the reason I write dual-time novels now; but the racism in it, which I always found jarring, stands out even more now, so I do have to mentally compartmentalize a few bits as I read. But Trustee from the Toolroom is such a lovely character study of a quiet, ordinary man who turns out to be anything but ordinary, in the end. I truly love that book.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Morgan, your typewriter will probably find you, when the time comes. Like Nevil found me. (And I hope your boss is feeling better after his surgery).

[Mary Jo Putney]

Hmmm, I read A Town Like Alice several times when I was much younger, but not recently. Maybe it's better I don't reread it. The basic story line is great, though.

[Lucy]

I went to using a manual typewriter last year, and find it works better for first-drafting than anything else I've done.

The main challenge is that the keys are different from a keyboard, so when I'm switching from the typewriter back to the computer, I sometimes have trouble remembering where my apostrophe went. :D

Glad that lovely old Royal found a home, and I hope you enjoy it for years to come. :-)

[Binnie Syril Braunstein]

Susanna - I used to have a powder blue Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter, with its own case. My sister got to have an Olympia manual with a wide carriage. My favorite electric typewriter was the IBM Selectric II. I just loved the feel of those keys under my fingers. When I finally bought my electric typewriter, the Selectric II was no longer available for purchase - not new, anyway, so I got the Selectric III. I used it to write many short stories, and the beginning drafts of my first book - but the keys didn't feel the same. The II had slick keys with a depression for the fingers; the III had flat matte keys, which I never liked. When I got the III, which I bought at an IBM store, I slavered over the more expensive models with 1 line of visible type, or even 10 lines of visible type. I used to dream about those 10 lines. (Who ever heard of a megabyte or gigabyte?) As for Nevil Shute, I loved No Highway, which was made into a movie with Jimmy Stewart playing Theodore Honey. I found No Highway to be quite a cautionary tale. Every time I flew, I'd think of Theodore Honey trying to convince people that the plane was going to shake apart. I also loved A Town Like Alice, which was a multi-part show on PBS eons ago. In both cases, the movie/telelay led me to the book. Enjoy your Nevil. He sounds lovely...I smiled at the reaction of the TSA person - "It's a typewriter!"

[SUSAN WARD]

I still have my old blue Smith Corona typewriter that I was given as a young girl doing what was then referred to as Office Studies at school. Sadly Bessie no longer functions but I can't bear to part with her.

[Pamela DG]

I know what you mean. My thoughts run faster than I can type, so after writing a passage, I have to fill in the gaps immediately afterward, before the moment or conversation slip away. I do better with my lap top. Writing in the bathtub, I can identify. I was in a hotel enjoying a relaxing soak in the jacuzzi and my characters start talking. The trip was genealogical in nature so I thought they to might take a vacation. I did have a notebook to write thoughts about my visits and cemetery research when my heroine's daughter starts talking to me with some great observations about her Momma and the Hero. Where did that come from? So here I am sitting on the edge of the jacuzzi, soaking my weary feet, pencil and pad in hand writing!

[Annette N]

I had a wonderful Remington portable. It was with me for years, and I liked it.

But, I found my own true love - an IBM Selectric many years later.

Just as you describe, the touch, the keys, everything about it was perfect for me.

It fit like a glove.

You know key boards have different sounds, etc. But, nothing has ever thrilled me like my IBM Selectric.

[Teresa Broderick]

I LOVE this story! How wonderful to rescue him from the shop. I hope ye have many happy hours together:)

[Mary M.]

Better watch out, Susanna. Crazy cat ladies have gotten their start with less motivation. (Ask me how I know, lol.) Maybe Nevil needs a sassy little Selectric sister ...

[Jeanne Behnke]

What a wonderful story! I'm glad you rescued Nevil!!

[Janice]

My favorite Nevil Shute adaptation is On the Beach - the version with Gregory Peck and Fred Astaire. Haunting.

[Kareni]

Welcome, Susanna, to your bouncing baby typewriter!

Hello there, Nevil. I hope that you and your person will be very happy together.

My parents had a copy of A Town Like Alice for many years; I suspect it dates from their time in Mt. Isa in the sixties. Now I'm thinking I should read something by Nevil Shute. What to read, what to read?

[Cindy A]

My husband is obsessed with manual typewriters! He has 25!! The oldest is an Oliver (made in Chicago) made in 1913. One of his favs is a Hermes -Swiss made, Olivetti - Italian made, Corona (1919) that folds! See the documentary called California Typewriter. Tom Hanks has a great collection.
BTW - you can get ribbons on Amazon. You should wind it on the original spools to keep it authentic.
We love going to antique stores and rescuing typewriters, cleaning them up, and maybe selling them to another typewriter lover. Pre-teens are beginning to get into them. My hubby sold a few to parents who homeschooled their kids. Craig's list has typewriters for sell - we see a lot of them there.
There is a group here called Typewriter Rodeo - they go somewhere, bring their typewriter and type poetry for you right there!
Careful, this is a rabbit hole you could fall into!!!!!

[Cindy A]

Yes, you have to find the one that fits your fingers. I have small ones. I love the glass keys and the tombstone keys. And the touch is important. Have fun!

[Lucy]

Susan, if you happen to check back and read this....

Bessie is probably repairable, but you'll need to find a typewriter shop in your state, or else take the expensive and risky route of shipping. If you scroll down to the bottom of this link, there's a list by state, and you may find more listed online by searching your state + typewriter repair. It's surprising how many places are doing it these days.

https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/tw-repair.html

[Karin]

I always liked the IBM Selectric typewriters that were commonly used in offices. I loved the hum they made when you turned them on. Believe it or not, there was one still in use in the law office I worked in, in the 2000's, because there were still a few legal forms that had to be filled out with a typewriter, there were no electronic versions of them online.

[Sue McCormick]

I'm SO glad you found the typewriter that fits! As SOON as I met word processors, i never went back to the typewriter. I was born for the Word Processor and had to wait 50-some years for it to appear.

But though I struggled against strikeovers (they happened before I knew i was doing it) I did have a good relationship with my father's Underwood, and my husband kept his Remington for years, long after we owned his and her computers. So i do understand your love of Nevil. (I too loved Nevil Shute.)

[Vicki L]

I forget what kind of typewriter I had but long after I quit using it I still had it. Until my mom wanted to give one to one of my nephews and I said sure, I'm not doing anything with it. He loved it. (That was 20 years ago I think.)

My mom and dad still have my grandmother's snazzy purple one.

As for typing class...now everyone needs to know how to type! There is no job where it wouldn't be faster if you knew how to type correctly on a keyboard.

Nevil Shute...love the two books I've read by him - Trustee in the Toolroom and A Town like Alice. I kept an eye out for copies to put on my Keeper shelf. Just the other day I was thinking about rereading Trustee of the Toolroom. Hmm, I think I read On the Beach but didn't care for it as much. Definitely never looked for a copy of to own.

[Julie Laird]

"Which made me think, Hold on a minute—do you mean this little typewriter of mine has been REJECTED? That people have come in and tried him out and thought of buying him and changed their minds because he didn’t have a case? Because, if you know me at all, you’ll know this means I’ll only love him more, and want to rescue him and take him home."

This is so me that I might have well have written this sentence. Congratulations on your new "rescue".

[Julie Laird]

I meant "might as well" Hmmm, if I had a typewriter, I wouldn't have had an autocorrect fail...