Like a Tralfamadorian, I will turn to happier moments in time: Moe at the junk shop had a 1920 Underwood Models 3,4,5 user manual for me. The events of Dresden haunt both writer and his main character – how do you make sense of an experience like that? How does a city recover from devastation on that scale? Vonnegut drew on his experiences as a POW in Germany and his unlikely survival of the firebombing of Dresden. I recently re-read Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five– it’s really more absurd and disturbingly tragic the second time around. The name Dresden fills me with some sadness, bringing to mind the bombing of the city in 1945.
If re-soldered, whoever re-soldered them did an expert job. I examined the type slugs carefully and the slugs that may have been replaced seem identical to the other slugs. However, the “Y” is the same color as the German characters. The key tops are different colors suggesting replacement at some point. Perhaps this was “war booty” brought home from Germany. There’s a Heidelberg dealer’s label on the inside of the case:Īnd how did this German girl get here to Moe’s junk store in California? With a QWERTY keyboard. Serial number is located under the space bar: 867592/M which makes it a 1940 Erika M. It has a QWERTY key board, but German characters and a £/$ key. I didn’t bring it home as it is way too clean and functional for my tastes. It’s a beautiful thing (despite a missing key top) and types beautifully.
There is at least another 75 years of typing in that Royal KHM and now she gets to see the world.Īnother machine that arrived recently at Moe’s is a 1940 Erika M with serial number 867592/M. I am pleased on many levels: it went fast the guy who bought it loved it and the Royal KHM would now be living abroad. Moe the store owner told me that the Royal KHM had sold almost immediately for $50 to a guy who was thrilled with it and was taking it with him to Thailand. Foster Typewriter Update: Some weeks ago I swung by my favorite junk shop to check the status of my foster typewriter, the Royal KHM.
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