Last week, a patron of the New York Public Library posed a question: What brand of typewriter did Virginia Woolf use?
This vintage Underwood portable from 1928 is priced at $575.
The query was sent on to the VWoolf Listserv, and answers rocketed through cyberspace.
The next day, this well-researched answer showed up on the ASK NYPL blog: “Virginia Woolf’s Typewriter.” In it, reference librarian Matthew Boylan references a quote from Woolf’s Oct. 28, 1928, letter to her nephew Julian Bell.
This spelling is the spelling of a Portable Underwood — not mine!
Thanks to Anne Fernald for sharing the NYPL link on Facebook, which is where I found it.
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What you picture may be a 1928 Underwood Portable. But see –
http://www.tw-db.com/indexen.htm
Underwood had two entirely different portables in production in 1928 – the 4-bank model that you show, and the 3-bank portable, which weighed only about half as much, under 10 lbs. I have several of each. Of all the portables under 10 lbs, the Underwood 3-bank is probably the easiest to use.
Thanks for the info. All this talk of typewriters makes me regret giving away my old Royal many years ago.
I bought an old typewriter recently at an Oxfam shop in London. It is a bit later but not much. I guess I should try my hand at writing with it. Love the blog and am now following you.