The Iron Whim

The Iron Whim is an intelligent, irreverent, and humorous history of writing culture and technology. It covers the early history and evolution of the typewriter as well as the various attempts over the years to change the keyboard configuration, but it is primarily about the role played by this marvel in the writer's life. Darren Wershler-Henry populates his book with figures as disparate as Bram Stoker, Mark Twain, Franz Kafka, Norman Mailer, Alger Hiss, William Burroughs, J. G. Ballard, Jack Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, Northrop Frye, David Cronenberg, and David Letterman; the soundtrack ranges from the industrial clatter of a newsroom full of Underwoods to the more muted tapping and hum of the Selectric. Wershler-Henry casts a bemused eye on the odd history of early writing machines, important and unusual typewritten texts, the creation of On the Road, and the exploits of a typewriting cockroach named Archy, numerous monkeys, poets, and even a couple of vampires. He gathers into his narrative typewriter-related rumors and anecdotes (Henry James became so accustomed to dictating his novels to a typist that he required the sound of a randomly operated typewriter even to begin to compose). And by broadening his focus to look at typewriting as a social system as well as the typewriter as a technological form, he examines the fascinating way that the tool has actually shaped the creative process.With engaging subject matter that ranges over two hundred years of literature and culture in English, The Iron Whim builds on recent interest in books about familiar objects and taps into our nostalgia for a method of communication and composition that has all but vanished.

Casts an amusing new light on the convoluted history of the first writing machines, re-examines important and unusual typewritten texts -- including the manuscript of ¿On the Road¿ and William S. Burroughs¿s ¿cut-ups¿ -- and recounts the exploits of a typewriting cockroach named Archy. Discusses typewriter-related rumors and anecdotes (the dying Henry James had become so accustomed to dictating his novels to a typist that he required the sound of a randomly operated typewriter to begin to compose). Reveals not only the history of and anecdotes about the machine, but also the fascinating way that, over the last two centuries when typewriting was writing, the tool actually shaped the creative process and regulated its users¿ behavior and thought processes.

Paul Auster is one of the most acclaimed figures in American literature. Known primarily as a novelist, Auster's films and various collaborations are now gaining more recognition. Evija Trofimova offers a radically different approach to the author's wider body of work, unpacking the fascinating web of relationships between his texts and presenting Auster's canon as a rhizomatic facto-fictional network produced by a set of writing tools. Exploring Auster's literal and figurative use of these tools ? the typewriter, the cigarette, the doppelg�nger figure, the city ? Evija Trofimova discovers Auster's "writing machine", a device that works both as a means to write and as a construct that manifests the emblematic writer-figure. This is a book about assembling texts and textual networks, the writing machines that produce them, and the ways such machines invest them with meaning. Embarking on a scholarly quest that takes her from between the lines of Auster's work to between the streets of his beloved New York and finally to the man himself, Paul Auster's Writing Machine becomes not just a critical investigation but a critical collaboration, raising important questions about the ultimate meaning of Auster's work, and about the relationship between texts, their authors, their readers and their critics.

This book investigates the history of writing as a cultural practice in a variety of contexts and periods. It analyses the rituals and practices determining intimate or ‘ordinary’ writing as well as bureaucratic and religious writing. From the inscribed images of ‘pre-literate’ societies, to the democratization of writing in the modern era, access to writing technology and its public and private uses are examined. In ten studies, presented by leading historians of scribal culture from seven countries, the book investigates the uses of writing in non-alphabetical as well as alphabetical script, in societies ranging from Native America and ancient Korea to modern Europe. The authors emphasise the material characteristics of writing, and in so doing they pose questions about the definition of writing itself. Drawing on expertise in various disciplines, they give an up-to-date account of the current state of knowledge in a field at the forefront of ‘Book History’.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1841 edition. Excerpt: ...Cornish engines the piston waits at the top until this is nearly done, and then moves so very slowly as never to feel any uncondensed steam beneath it. In rotative engines the rapidity of action renders this impossible. I shall enter more fully into these questions in my next. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Scalfel. February 18,1841. STEAM COOPERAGE. Our attention having been recently attracted by the statements that have appeared of the extraordinary advantages secured by a new patent for the manufacture of staves, shingles, laths, and for wood-cutting in general, we were induced to pay a visit to the works at the Square Shot-tower, Waterloo-bridge, on Monday last. The machinery which we then saw at work appeared to us fully to authorise the expectations of the patentee Captain W. H. Taylor. The process is so simple, and at the same time so effectual, that it must cause an entire revovolution in the trades affected by the invention. The wood, having been cut from the solid timber, by means of circular saws, into blocks of the requisite length and breadth, is first steamed for the purpose of softening and seasoning. The waste steam of the engine is used for this purpose. It is then cut into leaves of the required thickness with extraordinary rapidity by one or other of two sets of machines adapted for this purpose; the one being a species of iron plane working in a vertical direction, the other a large disc, containing two cutters, and performing from 100 to 150 revolutions per minute. Messrs. Bramah and Robinson have just completed a giant machine of this kind, being a disc of thirteen feet in diameter, intended for cutting hogshead staves. Such is the dynamical excellence of the mechanical arrangements, that at the expense of but two...