Did you know that the first novel ever written on a typewriter was Tom Sawyer?

January 18, 2008

I just got an email from my brother in law that stated, Did you know that the first novel ever written on a typewriter was Tom Sawyer?

This came with a bunch of “Did You Know” questions (like “The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone”) but it was the typewriter statement that made me especially curious. So, naturally I googled it. This is what came up.

(excerpt from Popular Misconceptions website)

…it seems that academic opinion is that Mark Twain remembered it wrong. He was the author of the first novel written on a typewriter, it seems, but with Life on the Mississippi instead. (This counter-claim is widely credited to historian Darryl Rehr, who cites ‘careful research by Twain historians’).

also:

Clemens did not actually type it himself, however. He dictated it based on a hand-written original draft.

Must be nice dictating your novel to someone! Though it says he did write a draft of the novel by hand. Doesn’t it just blow you away thinking about all those novelists who wrote their entire books by hand? Hundreds and hundreds of pages?

Jane Austen published Sense and Sensibility in 1811; Emma in 1815. Victor Hugo published Les Miserables in 1862. Flaubert published Madame Bovary in 1857.

I guess they had a lot more time back then, with the absence of Youtube and websites like KittyWigs.com.

Speaking of Madame Bovary, I found yet another mention of Emma Bovary’s shoulders! I think Flaubert had a fetish:

“As soon as she entered the hallway, Emma felt the cold of the plaster fall about her shoulders like damp linen.”

This coming hot on the shoulders heels of a previous, more sensual mention:

“Between the window and the hearth sat Emma at her needlework. She had no scarf about her neck, and tiny drops of perspiration were visible on her shoulders.”

See what I mean?!

**

And finally, had a great day of writing yesterday (only one more week left of my winter break; I start teaching 2 classes on Jan. 28). I spent a few hours at the coffee shop and finally got over this major hurdle in the book. It felt good. I’ve also decided (it’s about time) that I’m not going to get myself stuck (read: obsessed) with certain details, meaning i’m not going to tax my brain and waste time looking for the tiniest of details or descriptions (like what would be on the desk of a teacher in a 1953 classroom? what thickness of hair ribbon would a girl in 1953 wear?) . Instead i’m plowing through with the story/plot and worrying about some of those details later.Though I have to admit, when I see the (over)abundance of detail in Madame Bovary I get a little worried…

i.e.

“Above it, on the second storey, stood a castle-keep or donjon wrought in Savoy cake, surrounded with diminutive fortifications in angelica, almonds, raisins, and bits of orange; and finally, on the topmost level of all, which was nothing less than a verdant meadow where there were rocks with pools of jam and boats made out of nut-shells, was seen a little Cupid balancing himself on a chocolate swing, the posts of which were tipped with two real rosebuds.”

Sigh.