Why he used a manual typewriter

The late Kevin McGowin, 1970-2005

Ages ago, in 2007 by gosh, Jim Bowman put this up on his Blithe Spirit blog that might resonate with writers sixteen years later:

Kevin McGowin, a writer and teacher with two web sites and two computers who was only 30 years old when he wrote this, uses a manual typewriter for writing fiction.

I began this process in 1993, and by the next year had moved to typewriters almost exclusively–because I’m convinced it improves my writing, or at least makes it more like the platonic ideal of the writing I see in my mind’s eye that I would like to produce. And since I’ve made the shift back to the typewriter, I’ve written more and with more discipline, been less hasty and sloppy, and have seen improvement and now feel more confident.

Manual, not electric:

I found that I loved the lack of electricity, of not being “plugged in” to the wall, the feel of the hammers sculpting their shapes onto the paper.

How does it help?

I find my concentration enhanced, my sentences more taut, and by not being able to move around huge blocks of text I find myself more in tune with the narrative flow of the piece.

He’s an afficionado:

I use different machines for different kinds of writing–I’m writing this “personal essay” on my aforementioned first antique manual, a black 1940s Royal KM (like my initials–a famous novelist who admired my poetry gave it to me in 1993). It types small, and works well for essay-type writing. For correspondence, including cover and query letters to editors and publishers, I use a 1935 L.C. Smith upright–I love the way it forms numerals, and the click, the brisk action with which it forms its letters, which are larger than those of the Royal. People like to get letters typed on the Smith, I think–it’s personal, in this age of laser printed mass mailings and the letters are so clear. It types a little slow, which makes it perfect for letter writing, although you might not want to try a novel on it.

For his novels there’s “a beautiful and fast Underwood 11 that has a sound that reminds me of rain.”

Other writers also: novelist Don DeLillo uses a “1950s Olympia Deluxe, [which is] heavy for a portable, but . ..  fast and . . . accurate, a truly great writer’s machine.”

McGowin and his wife live in an apartment now, but look forward to owning “a Queen Anne-style house with hardwood floors and a working typewriter in every room . . . “

Alas, it won’t happen.  Shocking it was to come to the end of his later essay, “Why I Still Use a Manual Typewriter,” part of the beautiful site The Classic Typewriter Page, to read this:

Editor’s note: Kevin McGowin died in an accident on January 18, 2005. He will be missed by his friends and family, by me, and by his many readers on this site and elsewhere. –Richard Polt

May he rest in peace.  I’m stunned.

Tags: Kevin+McGowin, manual+typewriter