A 1930s Underwood Standard Typewriter no 5 owned by William Burroughs and recovered from his apartment at 210 Centre St, New York, cast iron frame, well used and dusty from storage, the ribbon broken but keys and other devices working smoothly.
Provenance David Prentice (from William Burroughs's apartment cleared out in April/May 1966).

WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS'S VINTAGE UNDERWOOD TYPEWRITER. David Prentice took two typewriters out of the Centre Street apartment, and returned the more modern one to Burroughs in 1975 when he took up residence again in New York City. Ironically, Burroughs was not a very efficient typist, and got Kerouac to type out Naked Lunch on a different Underwood typewriter, a portable displayed at the Pompidou in 2016.

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Ian Ehling

BURROUGHS, WILLIAM. 1914-1997.

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