Typewriter
I bought this Olivetti Lettera new in 1966,to write my dissertation, when I was an undergraduate at Manchester University.
Most students paid for their dissertation to be typed professionally. When I learned how much that would cost I had pause for thought. It was a shock - £30 comes to mind. It does
not sound much today but the inflation-adjusted value of that in today’s money is over
£600.
An Italian Olivia Lettera 32 Typewriter. It was used by Francis Ford Cuppola to write the screenplay for the film ‘The Godfather’.
A dissertation is not optional, so one way or another I had to find the money. Maybe fewer
visits to the Students’ Union bar and the take-away curry house
I did some probing and found that with (probably less) money I could buy a typewriter and do the job myself. So that’s
what I did. It made sense because once the dissertation was behind me I would still have a valuable item of equipment that I could either sell or keep. I had never typed before so went into this venture blind. My senior citizen’s mind of today reflects on what a risk I took. I must have struggled at first, yet I have no recollection of the inevitable trials of learning to type - in particular the frustrating need to re-type a page when the mistakes can no longer be hidden - was there Snopake at that time? I doubt it. Over sixty years later I still have it and am amazed at its strikingly stylish contemporary design. It was designed and manufactured in Italy after all! A quick look at Wikepedia tells me that
Francis Ford Coppola must have been
impressed by the machine because he used one to write the 1972 screenplay of The Godfather.
When I look at that machine today the years fold away, back to my room in Hall where my desk looked over bright greenery towards Manchester Grammar School. I spent hours there tapping away at the keyboard. Since those days the typewriter has spent most of its life in a cupboard, although, before the days of computers, it was handy to type formal letters when necessary. Thanks to acquiring some level of skill at typing I was ready when the computer age arrived. Keyboard skills were a given so I only had to struggle with making computers work for me. Computers made the typewriter totally redundant, but I never had the heart to dispose of it. It served me well at a critical time in my life - and It did the job; I got my degree.
