Writers at Work

[Muirium]

Great little site full of just what it claims.

Vonnegut:

Whose room is too awesome, even if he doesn't have a computer.

Roberto Bolaño has one of the few keyboards that isn't a typewriter on the site.


And Stephen King, naturally.


George Plimpton's got some multimedia going on in, 1990s style.


But the computers are fairly few and far between. It's mostly typewriter porn, and more than just a little of the old pen and paper…

Larry McMurtry, one of many featured whose home looks like a library.


Peter Carey, with ladder.


And Thornton Wilder, breaking the trend.


But the prize for best office goes to Dalton Trumbo.

Can't beat working from the bathtub.

Found via Craig Mod on Twitter.

[Grond]

Good post! Thanks for sharing.

[Dubsgalore]

thanks for posting these - these are always fun to look at

I like seeing photos of programmers/writers in their setups..and their keyboards too

oddly fun to look at

[Muirium]

Indeed. The typewriters are quaint, but I remember my own experiences with them, which were maddening!

Meanwhile, if anyone sees a writer typing on an SSK, I will be compelled to read their work.

[SL89]

What kind of computer is it that Stephen King has?

[Muirium]

Teletyping Mr_A500 or anyone else with a clue!

Looks a bit like an HP system I saw in storage once. But the picture's too small for me to know.

[mr_a500]

Teletyping Mr_A500 or anyone else with a clue!

Looks a bit like an HP system I saw in storage once. But the picture's too small for me to know.

Did somebody teletype me? I've seen many similar terminals, but it's too hard to tell from that distance. The monitor shape reminds me of one of the Beehive terminals.

But the prize for best office goes to Dalton Trumbo.

Can't beat working from the bathtub.

You got that right.

Max Headroom keyboard.jpg

[Muirium]

Knew that would work. There are few things quite so effective at snatching a man's attention than unexpected noises from his teletype!

[webwit]

Hemingway.



Roald Dahl.



Mark Twain.

[Muirium]

Notoriously dynamic, Hem could write standing up, too…

[Halvar]

They spend such a lot of time there. Some of these pictures don't look like anyone could stand working there for a longer time. And I don't mean the bathtub.

I won't bore you with German writers nobody knows... Instead, maybe not quite as inspiring, but brand new:

Linus Torvalds' workplace.

[webwit]

I once read some research that it is a bad idea to drink cold water in meetings and such, because that lowers your IQ a couple of points for some time after consumption. This is because part of the capacity of your brain, without you knowing it, is wasted on processing this matter with a temperature alien to your body's temperature. So I wonder if likewise, it's a bad idea to stand while doing work with your brain. Part of your brain will be occupied with beating gravity.

[mr_a500]

Yeah, but if you're sitting, part of your brain is wondering why your ass hurts so much.

I'd like to hold a meeting while suspended in a tank, like this:

[Muirium]

It's a bad idea to drink "cold water" in meetings in Scotland, that's for sure.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

:D

[mtl]

And one with the keyboard:

[Muirium]

Ebert, you great nerd!

What sweet keyboard is that he has? Blue on blue…

[mr_a500]

Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury liked their Selectrics:



Douglas Adams with an original Macintosh (DEC VT100 in the background)


Arthur C. Clarke on his Kaypro II:

[mr_a500]

Dick Van Dyke signs his much used Amiga 4000T before selling it:

(Too bad the Amiga 4000 had a rather crappy Mitsumi keyboard... but I think Dick used the mouse more - for his 3D renders and video work.)

[Muirium]

Adventures with trying to get in touch with Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka via Kaypro:

http://www.davidrothman.com/jungle.html

Decades later, he had an iMac G5. With perhaps my least favourite keyboard of all time, incidentally…



Douglas Adams had, supposedly, the very first Macintosh sold in Britain. Stephen Fry claims he was next in line behind him for the second.

http://www.stephenfry.uk/2014/01/24/mac-at-30/

[Grond]

While computers evolve, Arthur C. Clarke remains remarkably the same!

[Muirium]

Indeed. My favourite picture of him, from 1968!



Clarke was the quintessential hairless gentleman. He seemed to sidestep time itself.

[mr_a500]

Decades later, he had an iMac G5. With perhaps my least favourite keyboard of all time, incidentally…

I know. I wanted a Mac in the late 90's/early 00's and I used to go to the local Apple authorised resellers (pre-Apple Store days) to check out the latest Macs. When I first saw that keyboard, I thought, "What a cheap piece of shit." It was the beginning of my disappointment in the cheapening of Apple products. I decided to not waste money on a Mac, upgraded my Amiga and used that for another decade. That shit keyboard (along with a horrible Compaq... Comcrapq) was what started my transformation into a rubber-dome-loathing keyboard freak. (from which now there is no escape)

[Muirium]

It was my induction into actually noticing what I was typing on, too. Rare is the board which looks so good (for the first few seconds out the shrinkwrap) but feels so intensely shite.

[mr_a500]

Arthur C. Clarke also had an Amiga (after Kaypro, before Mac). Here he is talking about fractals:

[Muirium]

Speaking of fractals, Benoît Mandelbrot, the man himself, was a bit of a Clarke lookalike in his latter days.



He worked at IBM so we can rest assured he had his share of great keyboards. Although I can't seem to find a picture of him actually using one! Well, besides…



His Fractal Geometry of Nature is a classic read, by the way. And has one of the best introductions I've seen:

Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line.

[Madhias]

Did we have Terry Pratchett in here? He has a serious desk setup!

[scottc]

Holy shit, those monitors! I can't ID the keyboard, but if you're using a beige keyboard with a six-monitor setup, it's probably a nice keyboard.

[Madhias]

For sure it's ISO.

[Muirium]

I wonder if he just kept it going…



Nah, scratch that. The board he's got in the modern pictures has an extra bit of bodywork at the top this old one does not. Did anyone watch the documentary and remember whether there's some good closeups?

Some writers do stick to the same keyboard for decades. Well, John Gruber still uses an Apple Extended II to write Daring Fireball, at least.