A broken down typewriter destined for the trash heap ended up benefiting SFI to the tune of $210,000.
Renowned author and Institute regular Cormac McCarthy’s light blue Olivetti manual typewriter, which he bought second-hand more than five decades ago, auctioned for $254,500 in New York on December 3 – to the shock and delight of those at SFI following the sale.
Cormac typed all of his manuscripts on the machine from 1958 until 2009, including The Orchard Keeper, The Outer Dark, Child of God, Suttree, All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain, Blood Meridian, No Country for Old Men, The Road, two plays, one screenplay, and three unpublished works.
He bought the clacker in a Tennessee pawn- shop in 1958 for $50. By the fall of 2009, he says, it was beginning to show serious signs of wear.
His friend and SFI Professor John Miller offered to buy him a new one, “which he did,” Cormac says. “Then he asked what I intended to do with the old one and I said I didn’t know and he said: ‘Why don’t you auction it off and give the proceeds to the Institute?’ I thought that was a good idea.”
Prior to the sale, Christie’s Fine Art Auction House in New York estimated the typewriter’s value at just $15,000 to $20,000.
After sales commissions the final sum to SFI is about $210,000.
Following the sale, SFI President Jerry Sabloff said it was a great day for Cormac and SFI.