Last week Wayne mentioned lot 526 in the upcoming auction of selections from his library.Within that lot is My immediate reaction is that it was not a typewritten letter. By 1993, both of us wereusing computers with word processing software. Does that make a difference to anyone?

I have seen a lot of changes in typesetting and printing in the past sixty years. I got throughcollege with a portable Smith Corona manual typewriter. Out in the real world, the industrystandard was the IBM Selectric Typewriter with the bouncing ball. It has been fifty years since Isaw my first word-processing machine.

That was an IBM Selectric Typewriter with an attached magnetic tape drive. Text could becomposed, edited, printed and reproduced with multiple copies. My first desk-top computer wasconnected to a dot-matrix printer. Paper came folded in a box with holed strips on the edges.Eventually I moved up to ink-jet printers and laser copiers.

Once original letters were unique with the possibility of a carbon copy that could be identified asa copy. Word processing could produce multiple originals and copy quality became so good thatit was difficult to tell a copy from an original.

Printing and publishing also went through many improvements. Fifty years ago, I published abook with copy set in lead type. That technology went back to the nineteenth century. Then alongcame phototypesetting and copies.

In 1991 I attended with Krause Publications. I learned that they sent NumismaticNews to their printer as a digital file with no original printed copy required. That technologybecame available to the general public through email. I don't recall the last time I sent apublisher camera-ready copy. In 1993 I sent my column to The Numismatist on a floppy disk.Thus, I had gone from lead type to digital publication in twenty years.

What does this mean for literature collectors? Is a typewritten original letter worth any more thana letter printed with multiple copies or a photocopy? For a book collector, do you have anyinterest in knowing how the book was published? Does obsolete technology have any effect onperceived value?

To read the complete transcript, see:
Transcript: Ezra Klein Interviews Tom Hanks(https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/14/podcasts/ezra-klein-podcast-transcript-tom-hanks.html)

See also:
The Selectric Typewriter(https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/selectric/breakthroughs/)
Tom Hanks: Actor, typist(https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tom-hanks-uncommon-type/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NUMISMATIC CORRESPONDENCE: STUFF OF HISTORY(https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n37a20.html)