Queen’s University English professor Robert Morrison is available to talk about today’s news that the world’s last typewriter plant is shutting down.

Dr. Morrison feels the end of the typewriter era is sad news for literary scholars because old typewritten manuscripts – which are usually filled with writers’ edits – gave insight into the writing and thought process of some of the world’s greatest writers.

“With old, typewritten manuscripts you can very often see all the edits that were crossed out. That gives scholars and historians a very detailed trail of an author’s literary process. What a writer crossed out is sometimes far more interesting than what a writer decides to go with,” says Dr. Morrison. “The official end of the typewriter era is a loss to literary scholars. The delete key on a computer means a writer can invisibly get rid of information that future readers and scholars would find very valuable.”

To arrange an interview, please contact communication officers Michael Onesi at 613.533.6000 ext. 77513 or michael.onesi@queensu.ca or Christina Archibald at 613-533-2877 or Christina.Archibald@queensu.ca at Queen’s University News and Media Services Department in Kingston, Ont., Canada.

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