The Iron Whim: A Fragmented History of Typewriting

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Darren Wershler-Henrys "The Iron Whim" is a pure delight. This "fragmented history of typewriting" provides fascinating glimpses into the history, culture, and poetics of the typewriter, that instrument that controlled our writing for so many decades and for which nostalgia is currently at a high point. Himself a poet and critic, Wershler-Henry recounts, with great panache, how the typewriter works of such writers as Henry James and Charles Olson were actually produced. The role of the amanuensis, the dictation process, the production and reception of typed text: all these topics, clearly and vividly detailed, insure the wide reception "The Iron Whim" is sure to get. I cannot imagine a reader who would not find this book intriguing and compelling." --Marjorie Perloff, author of "Wittgenstein's Ladder: Poetic Language and the Strageness of the Ordinary" and "The Futurist Movement" "I have been waiting years for just such a book on the cultural imagination of the typewriter, and Darren Wershler-Henry makes the wait well worthwhile. "The Iron Whim "combines historical rigor, theoretical sophistication, and an amazing breadth of literary knowledge from the canonical to the avant-garde -- not to mention a palpable sense of mischievous fun. Wershler-Henry, one of today's most provocative scholars and poets, undertakes this medial archaeology with unerring precision: revealing the most surprising arcana to be central to our cultural history and making the most familiar facts of the modern writing machine seem suddenly new and strange and extravagantly unlikely. This book is necessary, intelligent, and fun."--Craig Dworkin, Associate Professor at the University of Utah, and authorof "Reading the Illegible" "Who connects the typewriter with vampires, ghosts, sex, drugs, and money? Poet, theorist, and culture critic Wershler-Henry, has produced a surprising book that is nothing short of a cultural history of the complex writing machine. Richly researched, the text is composed with elan and wit. A must-read for students of contemporary literature, media studies, and anyone interested in the interconnections of modern life and technology. This book will find its place next to Henry Petroski's book "The Pencil" as a marvel of transformative prose by which a mundane and under-appreciated invention rises from humble beginnings to a starring role in the history of culture." --Johanna Drucker, Robertson Professor of Media Studies, University of Virginia