Great Writer, Great Machine

Cormac McCarthy’s typewriter, an Olivetti Lettera 32 he purchased at a pawn shop for $50 in 1963, sells at auction for $254,500:

“It has never been serviced or cleaned other than blowing out the dust with a service station hose. … I have typed on this typewriter every book I have written including three not published. Including all drafts and correspondence I would put this at about five million words over a period of 50 years.”

The proceeds are going to the Santa Fe Institute, “a nonprofit interdisciplinary scientific research organization”. And so what will McCarthy write with now? Another Olivetti Lettera 32 in new condition.

(Via The New Yorker.)

★ Wednesday, 9 December 2009