Teeritz's comments in the New Member thread got me thinking about the influence well-known people have on typewriter collector. Did their choice in typewriters have any effect your own buying habits?

I thought it would be interesting to start a thread on public figures and their typewriters, especially the ones who have influenced your purchase (or search) of a specific machine. 

Here are a few of mine:

Ernest Hemingway
I'm a big fan of Hemingway's work and the idea of owning a typewriter model that he used to write with would be something special.
Typerwirters: Corona 3, Underwood Noiseless Portable, Royal Arrow, Royal P, Halda portable model P




Ian Fleming
Okay, I'll admit that I'm a James Bond junkie and that owning a Fleming typer would be a novelty.
Typewriters: Royal portables, Triumph Gabriele (1950s)




Dashiell Hammett
The Thin Man series and Hammett's other detective books such as The Maltese Falcon are a lot of fun to read, so an example of the typewriter he was known to use was a must buy.
Typewriter: Royal De Luxe 




Günter Grass
An author that I have a lot of respect for, Grass wrote with - and swore by - a legendary machine, although I still don't understand how he wrote anything of length on one.
Typewriter: Olivetti Lettera 22 (1954)




T.E. Lawrence
Having read Seven Pillars of Wisdom,  it was imperative that I own the same model as was used by Lawrence to write his landmark book with.
Typewriter: Royal 5




Hunter S. Thompson
Brilliant in his own way, owning a Thompson typer meant a leap into a genre that I swore I'd avoid: Electric typewriters. Still, his choice of machine is now an icon design of the electric age and the day will come when I wasn't able to resist its call. By the way, Thompson for some reason had a fondness for shooting defenceless Selectric typewriters in the wild. No one could ever accuse the man of being boring.
Typewriter: ​IBM Selectric (1961-71 in red) 


 

Last edited by Uwe (23-3-2013 10:36:13)