Every week, the AWM is excited to bring you stories written by our visitors in our Story of the Day exhibit, which features typewriters that visitors can interact with directly. Check back weekly for new stories, and visit the Museum to try out our typewriters and possibly be featured here!
Celebrating Hemingway
Sunday marks Ernest Hemingway’s 120th birthday! We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share this visitor’s thoughts on a very famous Hemingway quote. Head over to this post to learn more about the Hemingway typewriter currently on display in our Tools of the Trade exhibit!
July 20, 2018
Hemingway said to just let yourself bleed. But what if all the blood comes out in pools and nothing is discernible from anything else? Then your message is just as lost in your blood as it is in your brain. But when your blood clots, you still have to let it out. Whether it is forced out with a leech or flows freely like the Mississippi.
Lines become letters and letters become words and words become sentences and sentences become paragraphs and paragraphs become stories and stories become ideas and ideas become actions and actions become legacies and trickle down through time like a flowing river of blood that has been set free.
So I guess he was right. Even if we say jumbled piles of nonsense, at least we didn’t say nothing. At least there is a line for the legacy to flow from?
-bw
Typewriter Advice
This visitor gave some great advice about how to use the typewriters at the Story of the Day exhibit. Don’t worry – we opt to recycle the paper rather than burn it.
If you use a typewriter you better have strong fingers and little perfectionism. And a waste paper basket. The basket will come in handy to fuel your fireplace. The number 1 mistake of most fire makers is not using enough kindling!
Different Tools
We get it, typewriters aren’t for everybody. In our Tools of the Trade exhibit, we also feature 2 inkwells and a braille writer alongside the array of manual and electric typewriters. With so many different tools – from this visitor’s pencil to the phone they probably had in their pocket – everyone can find their favorite tool and get to writing!
I prefer a pencil and paper!
When I was at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, AR, I bought my favorite tote bag, a large zippered one with a great red and black image of a real typewriter! I carry it to all my writing classes. I could send you a picture of it if you’d like to see it, but I would need an email address to send it to.
Hi Bindy,
Thanks for being such a great member of the Museum! We would love to see your bag if you would like to share. Feel free to send us a picture at general@americanwritersmuseum.org