libraries, culture, typewriters
I’m a little tardy on this, but I wanted to share what my wife got me for Father's Day. After a great deal of secret preparations, she presented a one-of-a-kind Little Book of Typewriters for me and our son: The first page includes a scan of something we got from Tom Hanks in reply to … Continue reading Little Book of Typewriters
Ready Player One took my esteem for Spielberg down a notch, but The Post—made after Ready Player One but released before it—has elements of his best work, even if it doesn't rise above the sum of its parts. Generally it's standard Spielberg, with old-school liberal and institutionalist views on the press, akin to Lincoln in … Continue reading The Post
Arriving home after a long weekend in Asheville, I opened our mailbox and saw a letter addressed to me from Playtone, Tom Hanks' company. Oh shit, I said out loud. I'd typed and sent him a short letter a few weeks ago about my photo of his book and to thank him for being a great ambassador … Continue reading Tom Hanks Goes Postal
I had the pleasure of seeing a photo of mine get the Ken Burns treatment on CBS Sunday Morning's story this weekend about Tom Hanks, his new book, and his love of typewriters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTtDb73NkNM One of my colleagues got an advance copy of Hanks' book at a library conference back in June specifically because she … Continue reading Tom Hanks, Olympia, and Me
As was the case with Tom Hanks's new typewriter-inspired short story collection, I was the easiest mark in the world for the new Doug Nichol documentary California Typewriter, which profiles the titular typewriter repair shop in Berkeley and the wider place of the typewriter in modern culture. Though I've been anticipating the film for a while, I … Continue reading The People’s Machine: On ‘California Typewriter’
It's fitting that my very first typecast is a review of "Uncommon Type: Some Stories", a book of typewriter-inspired short stories by Tom Hanks (out October 2017).
Tom Hanks, the most famous typewriter enthusiast in the world, couldn't be a better ambassador for the field. Whether in a podcast or film or newspaper, he tells the Good News with his trademark charming gravitas. Though I'm sure longtime collectors wince at the thought of prices rising with such high-profile boosterism, it's ultimately good … Continue reading One Year in the Revolution
There's a scene in Saving Private Ryan when Matt Damon's Pvt. Ryan and Tom Hanks' Capt. Miller sit and chat, waiting for the impending German offensive to hit their French town. Ryan's three brothers had recently died and he can't remember their faces. The Captain tells him to think of a specific context, something they'd shared … Continue reading Pruning The Rosebushes: What Not To Share