The Typewriter

With users from hipster art students to government officials, the typewriter is making a comeback. The trendy store Urban Outfitters sells the machines, modern with a vintage touch. Actor Tom Hanks, a typewriter collector, developed a successful iPad app that simulates typewriter typing, noises included. Popular television shows such as Mad Men, and growing concerns about online privacy, have also contributed to the resurgence. In turn, numerous books on the machine have recently been published. Typewriter is an easy-read gift book packed with fast facts and trivia about the machines and the people who used them. In a font reminiscent of typewritten text, the book teaches about the development of the keyboard and which machine was an author's favorite. Images mainly include typewriter advertisements and photographs of secretaries and authors at their machines.The Art of Typewriting contains over 200 works from Marvin and Ruth Sackner's Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, the largest collection of its kind--in the poetry, the arrangement of the words on the page directly affects the understanding of the text. The overall image is either abstract or realistic. Opening essays introduce readers to the Sackner's collection and the history of typewriter art, from decorative patterns to reproductions of famous paintings to visual poetry. Almost every artwork has its own beautifully printed catalog page, making it easy to see detail. Biographies of prominent artists and a bibliography round out this comprehensive catalog. VERDICT Typewriter will appeal to collectors of the machines and readers nostalgic for the pre-computer era. But with its small book design, it won't hold interest for long. The Art of Typewriting, exemplifying a one-of-a-kind art collection, is likely to find more readers among machine enthusiasts, artists, and poets. --Shannon Marie Robinson, Denison Univ. Lib., Granville, OH Library, December 1. 2015