A paperback writer

Over Christmas break I decided that I was going to make an art piece for the wall in my bedroom that featured a picture of a typewriter on top of pages torn from books. The piece never came to fruition (despite the hours and hours and hours I spent tearing the pages and shellacking them onto a canvas) but I sort of fell for antique typewriters in the process of working on it. I'm not so much interested in typing on typewriters as I am in their aesthetic quality (That is, the aesthetic quality of the really old ones that are sleek and dark, not the newer ones that are plastic and clunky.) and I thought it might be nice to eventually have one to display in my house. Well, my genius boyfriend has been perusing the internet in search of a typewriter that would meet my standards all semester and he finally found one and bequeathed it to me the night before graduation. Behold, dear readers, the majestic Remington Rand Model 1 typewriter:

Sean bought it from a guy who found it in his parents' attic and didn't have any use for it. It came in its original case with a cleaning brush and the original instruction manual. All of those things are a little worn, but the typewriter itself looks like it's never been touched (although I know that's not true because the first two pages of a typewritten story were tucked away in the instruction manual).

The model was produced between 1933 and 1941, which makes it at least 68 years old. According to a website specializing in antique typewriters, "it was targeted to teachers, writers and businesspeople who cranked out lots of documents -- and who needed a quick, clear easy-to-use machine." Remington documents called it the "noisy noiseless" and the "Speed Portable" and it originally sold for $65. Now, however, if you buy one of these puppies from someone who knows what they're doing (aka: not the guy Sean bought it from) they'll run you $525! And even though I said I'd just like to look at it, the clackity-clack it makes when I press the keys sounds so nice that I might just use it to crank out a novel or two.