Clickety Clack, Don't Talk Back

Tom Hanks and I collect typewriters. You find them in dusty barns in deepest Vermont on a summer road trip. The farmer in overalls - right out of central casting - always says, “Don’t worry, it works real good”. One of mine was my father’s, another was my ex father-in-law’s, a particularly weird one is The Oliver and there’s one that’s quite ancient. I displayed them in my GE Capital office for years and a company lawyer popped in one day, surveyed the exhibit and said snidely, “Well, they’re not art, are they?” My frisson of pleasure was palpable when a week later he was defenestrated. His sacking had not to do with a manifest lack of artistic sensibilities, but one can never be sure given the vicissitudes of commerce. Last year, an auction rocked the typewriter collecting community and broke hearts around the world.