Het Makers Manifest

Auke Vanderhoek in the Netherlands has composed a "Maker's Manifesto," closely inspired by the Typewriter Manifesto. You can find the Dutch text here, and here are some delightful photos of Auke's daughter.

A thank-you from a typewriter-loving kid

We all know that kids love typewriters, and many of them surely asked Santa for one.

With permission from her grandpa, who shared it with me, I'm reproducing a letter from a certain eight-year-old whose wish was fulfilled.

Kids typing letters to Santa

Continuing the theme from my previous post, here's a delightful report from a Georgia typist, reproduced with his permission:


Good evening Richard,

I became a member of the insurgency a few months ago after reading your book and seeing the obligatory “California Typewriter” film. A couple of weeks ago I took the initiative to call a friend who owns a local Mexican restaurant that has a kids' night every Monday and asked her if she would like me to bring a few typewriters for kids to write letters to Santa. She said yes and my wife Michele and I took six nice manual typewriters and a copy of “Click Clack Moo” to the restaurant for them to use this past Monday. To our surprise, there were 32 kids from 4 to 10 years old who used a typewriter for the first time to send Santa a letter that night.

At the end of the night, we also had a drawing among the kids and gave away a nice 1960 Smith Corona Galaxie that I picked up for $20, cleaned it up following your tips and installed a new ribbon.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Jason Upshaw
Tifton Ga.


Thanks to you for spreading the typewriter joy!

What kids love

A couple of years ago, I set up an Olympia SG3 in Xavier's faculty lounge.

People started using it for random bits of poetry, comments, and such. But recently, it's seen little use.

I suggested to a librarian that it might go well in the little makerspace that is located on the ground floor of our library. I checked in recently and saw that, in fact, some people had typed long sheets of stories and nonsense on the machine. And my librarian friend sent me a photo that reinforces a widely recognized truth:

How to bewitch a middle-school kid

A former student of mine writes:

I have been teaching middle school, and I love to be with the students. ... I have dozens and dozens of stories from the year so far. It seems that at every moment of teaching, my attitude is either "I can't believe I get paid to do this," or, "you cannot possibly pay someone enough to do this." The challenges and joys together make it great.

As part of my personal desk setup in my classroom, I included, of course, the Brother typewriter that I acquired from you a couple of years ago. I was under the impression that it would be useful to me, and that it is also a good item to have on any serious instructor's desk.

What I did not foresee was just how fascinated all of the students would be by it.

The 6th graders have taken to keeping a collective, daily class journal on my typewriter. The physical sensation of the apparatus is all but bewitching for them. And the notes they type reflect a connectedness to their day that I don't think would be catalogued in a Word document. The amount of instances per day in which I hear the words, "Mr. P_____, can I type on the typewriter?" is higher than I could have possibly anticipated. It is downright delightful. Several students have also expressed to me that they are finally typing well on the computer precisely because of their practice on the more-difficult typewriter.

Attached is an image of a page of text that some of my students typed a few weeks ago--to give you an idea of what they've been using it for.

Making & Typing in California

At a recent Maker's Faire in California, a loyal agent of the typewriter insurgency and her son brought a set of typewriters. Here's a succinct report:





More details: "It was fun to see a couple of kids discover typewriters and really take to it right away. One boy spent about an hour on 3 different typewriters, being really focused. A lot of notes to moms, dads and grandmas were written. One little girl wrote a beautiful note to her teacher whose husband just passed away. About 5 preteen girls were really into writing notes to their friends—like texting.
Out typewriters were right next to a station where the kids could tear apart computers. So many were fascinated to see and basically understand how the typewriters worked as opposed to computers which seemed more abstract."

Revolution in the mailbox: In the shadow of G**gle and on the road to London

A view of our base camp:

Meanwhile, from Agent Bikethru:

Follow Bikethru on Twitter.

More typing from first-graders

Here's some more delightful typewritten prose from Brad Coulter's first-grade class in Kirkland, Washington. Brad has collected it in three short books:

Book 1: I'm Writing a Page

Book 2: Wait, What?

Book 3: I Need a Cappuccino

Among the highlights:

Thanks to Mr. Coulter and the authors!

Mr. Coulter's first-grade class writes a book

Here's a followup to the story about Brad Coulter's first-graders and their typewriters in Kirkland, Washington.

The class has now completed a book of typed creative writing. Brad says:

I've been gathering typewriters over the last year (all old manual typewriters and one electric), and I now have enough for each student. I've found sources for new ribbons and I've learned how to repair them. They range from 35 to 95 years in age and in general they work as well now as the day they were made.

Each week the kids are assigned a typewriter. For writing they have the option to type or to write in their journals. Most kids use the typewriters. The room sounds like an old newsroom with the kids clacking away. As you can see, they spell things the way they sound, and I've taught them that typing mistakes are part of the page, and they continue on. We don't start over, we don't mess with white-out, though sometimes we edit and re-type, but only occasionally. We have access to netbooks, but I've found that with primary age kids, the time it takes to log on, along with network issues, deleted files, mistakes in saving, printing, etc., generally make for trouble. The typing is immediate, tactile, all that. I've seen great improvement in their writing skills since September. I'd like to quantify this somehow. Of course it's not about the typewriters, it's about the writing, but I think I might be onto something.

Congratulations, kids and Mr. Coulter, and thanks for sharing!

You can download the book here.

Kids at the keys in Kirkland

Brad Coulter is a first-grade teacher at Lakeview Elementary in Kirkland, Washington, in the Seattle area. I got to meet Brad when he was in Cincinnati a little while ago, and we traded thoughts on the magic that happens when kids meet typewriters. Now Brad has shared this view of his students at their writing machines, and some samples of their writing.

Sometimes the kids write poems:

Now the kids are excited that Halloween is coming up ...

... and they're writing about scary stuff:

Kids love typewriters and benefit from them. WordPlay proves it, Magic Margin proves it, and so does the latest Philly type-in. When the educrats call for "more technology in the classroom," let's all jump up and cry, "Yes! More Royals! More Olympias! More Remingtons!"

Typewriters at Books by the Banks

Books by the Banks is a festival in downtown Cincinnati featuring lots of authors signing books, talks on publishing, and other fun events. I got to see my old friend, and very successful SF writer, John Scalzi.

WordPlay had a room where kids were invited to write flash fiction, create blackout poetry using old magazines, and — of course — try their hands at typewriting. It's fair to say that the typewriters were the main attraction. 

There was a steady stream of visitors who peeked in, attracted by the clacking sound, and wanted to give the machines a try.

Typewriters, books, and people — a great combination!

The boys at the keys

I said in my previous post that there wasn't quite as much click-clacking at WordPlay Cincy these days,  but when I stopped by today, there were many happy mechanical sounds, including those produced by these three eager boys.

The typewriters are a blue Tippa S and two Royal Scrittores. The Tippa was donated by Natalie Tan, and the Scrittores were donated by a local company that used them in a typing competition last July that promoted their product, the TREWgrip mobile keyboard.