I'm Bob Sassone. I'm typing the first draft of this letter on a 1954 Smith Corona Silent, a green and gray beauty. Now, for most of us, buying a typewriter in this age of the Internet, texting and tablet computers is odd enough. But there are plenty of writers who still use typewriters. Using a typewriter is a form of time travel. For people who know me well, the fact that I use a typewriter isn't a surprise. I'm someone who still has a landline and wears a wristwatch. So owning a typewriter fits into that life quite nicely.
Why do I love it so much? It is made for doing one thing: Writing. There are no distractions no email to check, no alerts that grab your attention. Some people look at it and said, "But you can't access the Internet on it!" Not being able to access the Internet on my writing machine is a feature, not a bug.
Of course I don't use a typewriter all the time. It's impossible in the 21st century. As someone who does a lot of work online and has to email his work to editors and other people, doing all of my writing on a typewriter just isn't something that would work today. And after using a computer keyboard for over 30 years, typing on a typewriter is hard. But it's wonderful to write letters, create first drafts, make notes and lists, and a typed message on a card or thank-you note looks fantastic. I didn't buy it for show. I'm actually using it!
So I write on both a typewriter and a laptop. I live in 1954 and in the modern digital age. Old and new, analog and digital, beauty and convenience. I straddle both worlds and try to use the technology that suits me best and works the best depending on what I'm doing. And that's really what we all should be doing with technology, isn't it?
