… with his typewriter. Yes, it turns out the Twain-man couldn’t quite untangle his feelings about the revolutionary device. Mr. Clemens certainly made history when he wrote Tom Sawyer: it was the first-ever typed manuscript to be submitted for publication. But though he loved his typewriter, he couldn’t bring himself to offer a public endorsement for Remington, the manufacturer, as we see in this letter.
Gentlemen: Please do not use my name in any way, please do not even divulge the fact that I own a machine, I have entirely stopped using the typewriter, for the reason that I never could write a letter with it to anybody without receiving a request by return mail that I would not only describe the machine but state what progress I had made in the use of it, etc., etc. I don’t like to write letters, and so I don’t want people to know that I own this curiosity breeding little joker.
Yours truly,
Saml. L. Clemens.
from Bruce Bliven Jr.’s 1954 book The Wonderful Writing Machine
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