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Pulp Librarian Profile picture
@PulpLibrarian
Jun 24, 2020 • 9 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
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Happy #NationalWritingDay everybody! Today I'm looking back at that essential item all writers need, love and occasionally bash their heads against: the typewriter!

What? You're still writing in longhand? Tsk... Image
All pulp authors love a typewriter! Here's Michael Avallone - "The fastest typewriter in the East" - on how to write well quickly... ImageImageImageImage
If you think you don't have time to write, remember this: Ray Bradbury began writing Farenheit 451 on a pay-by-the-hour rental typewriter in the UCLA library. Image
At his peak pulpwriter Orrie Hitt could write a book every two weeks, bashing them out on a Remington Royal typewriter with a carton of smokes and a bottle of Bourbon for sustinance. ImageImageImageImage
Gruselroman legend Helmut Rellergerd (aka John Sinclair) is still writing stories on his old Olympia typewriter to this day - sometimes one a week! ImageImage
Typewriter Repair Man! He's the hero we've been looking for...

Olivetti service advert, 1953. Image
The first novel written on a word processor was Bomber, published by Len Deighton in 1970. Deighton had an 91kg leased IBM MT72 carefully winched into his London home through an upstairs window.

It'll never catch on you know... Image
If you're not sure how to use a typewriter heres's a guide to the 1954 Olivetti Lettra 22.

Other typewriters are available... Image
And if you get bored writing... well you can always type a picture of Kojak'a head. Who loves ya baby!

Happy #NationalWritingDay everyone. Image

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More from @PulpLibrarian

Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Dec 27, 2025
Today in pulp: how do you write a novel in two weeks?

Pulp writing that has to work within specific constraints, which in turn shape the nature of the story. And speed is the biggest constraint of all: you have to write quickly!

But there are ways to make it work for you... Image
Today a prolific author may write a book every year, but in the 1950s and '60s pulp writer sometimes had as little as two weeks to complete a 50,000 word story and have it ready for print.

That’s 25 novels a year: but at least they got Christmas off! Image
Writing that quickly is hard, but surprisingly liberating. Pulp writers had to go with their first ideas and had to make them work. There wasn’t time to ‘kill your darlings’ - instead you had to toughen them up and send them into battle! Image
Read 23 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Sep 26, 2025
Today in pulp I'm taking a look back at the Regency Romance series from Signet Books! Image
Signet's Regency Romance series started in the late 1970s and ran until 2006. Like its rivals Harlequin and Mills & Boone, Signet Regency Romance published a number of titles each month, often to the same formula... Image
Most (but not all) Signet Regency Romance covers were by Allan Kass, and I can heartily recommend Rhonda Whiting's wonderful blog about this artist, featuring hundreds of scans of his work allankass.blogspot.co.ukImage
Read 11 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Sep 14, 2025
Do you enjoy:
- rally driving?
- quizzes?
- touching stuff?

Then I have the magazine for you... Image
Electronic bagpipes. Everyday Electronics, May 1974. Image
Laugh simulator. Everyday Electronics, January 1972. Image
Read 9 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Jul 26, 2025
What are the pulp archetypes? Pulp novels are usually written quickly and rely on a formula, but do they use different archetypal characters to other fiction?

Let's take a look at a few... Image
The Outlaw is a classic pulp archetype: from Dick Turpin onwards lawbreakers have been a staple of the genre. Crime never pays, but it's exciting and trangressive!

Some pulp outlaws however are principled... Image
As Bob Dylan sang "to live outside the law you must be honest." Michel Gourdon's 1915 hero Dr Christopher Syn is a good example. A clergyman turned pirate and smuggler, he starts as a revenger but becomes the moral magistrate of the smuggling gangs of Romney Marsh. Image
Read 28 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Jun 30, 2025
Given the current heatwave, I feel obliged to ask my favourite question: is it time to bring back the leisure suit?

Let's find out... Image
Now we all know what a man's lounge suit is, but if we're honest it can be a bit... stuffy. Formal. Businesslike. Not what you'd wear 'in da club' as the young folks say. Image
So for many years tailors have been experimenting with less formal, but still upmarket gents attire. The sort of garb you could wear for both a high level business meeting AND for listening to the Moody Blues in an espresso bar. Something versatile. Image
Read 16 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Jun 29, 2025
Time once again for my occasional series "Women with great hair fleeing gothic houses!"

Let's see what's in the library... Image
The Voice of the House, by Margaret Erskine (an Inspector Finch Gothic Mystery). Ace Gothic, 1973.

She'll fall over if she leans like that. Image
The Three Sisters of No End House, by Mona Farnsworth. Ace Gothic, 1972.

I said she'll fall over if she leans like that! Image
Read 10 tweets

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