Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our John posts about this marvellous artifact: the autographed typewriter on which Douglas Adams wrote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for sale for a mere ~$25K. An archivist friend of mine tells me that libraries that once collected authors’ papers are now storing their hard-drives:
N.V. Books in Great Wolford, Warwickshire is selling Adams’ vintage Hermes Standard 8 typewriter for a cool $25,257.94. Or, rather, they are selling a first-edition copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide in “fine” condition and generously throwing in the typewriter as extra.With strange significance, the x key is particularly discolored and worn, which I hope will prompt someone to do a statistical breakdown of the frequency of letter x’s in Adams’ oeuvre. Also, for authenticity, an “End Apartheid” sticker is slapped on the side, identifying it with almost carbon-dated efficiency as a relic of the late 70s and 80s.
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