I am trying to get the hang of this newfangled machine, but am not making a shining success of it." Those of us who are having difficulties with our first "newfangled" computers will appreciate Mark Twain's experiences with his first typewriter.
Typewriters were first patented in 1714. They did not, however, be come suitable for practical use until the late 1860s. Mark Twain bought one for $125.
He first used his new typewriter on December 9, 1874. Two letters, typed out on the Remington that day, encapsulate his early feelings toward the machine. The first, to his brother Orion, contains praise for the invention. "This is the first attempt I ever have made," he wrote, "and yet I perceive that I shall soon and easily acquire a fine facility in its use." By the time he typed his second to his friend, William Dean Howells, his enthusiasm was already waning. "Blame my cats but this thing requires genius in order to work it just right."
Even though Twain claimed to be the "first person in the world to apply the type machine to literature" he made his feelings clear about the typewriter when Remington wrote for an endorsement. He felt this writing machine was somehow ruining his morals. Twain wrote back beseeching the manufacturers, "Please do not use my name in any way. Please do not even divulge the fact that I own a machine."
The great humorist then began a comic effort to rid himself of the typewriter. He first promised it to Howells, but forgetting the promise, traded it to another friend, Frank Bliss, for a $12 saddle. "Cheating him outrageously," Twain wrote.
After he had traded the typewriter to Bliss, Twain wrote a letter to Howells apologizing for his bad memory. Twain also included the following prediction: "I have sent Bliss word. . .to let me know when he has got his dose, because I've got an other candidate for damnation. You just wait a couple of weeks and if you don't see the Type-Writer come tilting along toward Cambridge... I lose my guess."
Bliss did, in fact, return the type writer to Twain, who finally forwarded it to Howells. In an essay written almost 30 years later, Mark Twain added a postscript to the story of his first typewriter. "He [Howells] took it home to Boston, and my morals began to improve, but his have never recovered."