So this weekend was yet another dud for me, but I did happen to snag this 1960’s portable typewriter. Luckily we decided to stop at a garage sale that had been open for three days and to my advantage they had just marked all typewriters down to $2.00! Yes, I did say typewriters plural—there were four that I left behind. I almost grabbed a second one but I’m so glad I gave it a good look over, because it was missing a key.
I now have an Italian-made, sea-foam blue, Olivetti Underwood Lettera 32 portable typewriter. I think the matching carrying case is just adorable and very useful, making it easy to transport.
From the information I found on Wikipedia, this typewriter was designed by Marcello Nizzoli in 1963. Another fun fact I found on Wikipedia was that famous novelist and playwright, Cormac McCarthy used an Olivetti Lettera 32 to write his works on. When he found a replacement of the same model, but in better condition for $20.00, he decided to auction off his old one at Christie’s and donated the profit to a charity. That typewriter, because of its history, brought in a whopping $254,500! How cool is that?
I do believe that the early bird gets the worm, but sometimes the best bargains can be found on the last day of a sale.
3 Comments
I am a freelancer doing a book on Cormac McCarthy and have been looking for images when I hit your typewriter pictures with the exact model he used. Is there any way I can get higher res pictures of these that I could use? I am working for a small university (Univ of Tennessee Press) press and cannot pay much. I would credit you on the cover as the source and send you some books.
Hi Barbara! That would be really cool. I will send you an email.
Probably would use the close up with half of the typewriter showing or the second one because of the angle although the bottom is cut off a bit. Do you use dropbox? It’s free. If it is a high resolution image it may be too big to attach to an email. The bigger the better for my purposes. Thanks for your help. You would think I would be able to get an image of him but cannot find any that aren’t a million $$ to use . . .