Why Cormac McCarthy's $50 Pawn-Shop Typewriter Sold for $254,500

A $50 machine at Christie's

On Dec. 4, 2009, Christie's in New York offered lot 84 in a sale of fine printed books and manuscripts: a battered, pale blue Olivetti portable typewriter with its original blue carrying case. It belonged to Cormac McCarthy, and the sale was held to benefit the Santa Fe Institute. Christie's estimated it at $15,000 to $20,000.

It did far better. After what the Australian Associated Press described as a two-way bidding war, the hammer fell at $210,000, and with the buyer's premium the price realized was $254,500, nearly 13 times the top of the estimate. The buyer was anonymous. According to the AAP, the winner also received an invitation to lunch with the author in Santa Fe.

Never serviced, just blown out

McCarthy bought the Olivetti in a Knoxville, Tennessee, pawnshop for $50. The year is less certain: his letter for the auction said the fall of 1958, but he later told The New York Times that was a mistake and that he bought it a few years later. He had used a Royal before, he told the paper, but ahead of a trip to Europe in the early 1960s he wanted the smallest, lightest typewriter he could find. The Times identified the machine as an Olivetti Lettera 32.

By his own account, the typewriter was never serviced or cleaned, apart from blowing the dust out with an air hose at a service station. By the fall of 2009 it was showing serious signs of wear. A friend and colleague at the Santa Fe Institute, a nonprofit interdisciplinary research organization with which both men were affiliated, offered to buy him a new one, and did. Then the friend asked what McCarthy planned to do with the old one and suggested auctioning it and giving the proceeds to the Institute. McCarthy thought that was a good idea.

The letter that made the price

A worn typewriter needs proof to become a literary artifact. In an interview with 27east, Glenn Horowitz, the bookseller who arranged the sale, said Christie's wanted a letter from the author confirming the machine was his. McCarthy wrote one in October 2009, typed on the Olivetti itself. In it he states that he had typed every book he had written on that machine, including three that were unpublished.

Christie's lot description spells out what that covers, from the four early Tennessee novels to his two most recent books at the time, The Road and No Country for Old Men, whose film adaptation won the Academy Award for best picture in 2008. The Times was slightly more cautious, writing that nearly every one of his books had been typed on it, a reasonable hedge given the earlier Royal.

Horowitz explained the appeal with one image: "It's as if Mount Rushmore was carved with a Swiss Army knife." That gap between a humble tool and the scale of the work is most likely what the winning bidder was paying for. He also told 27east that the authentication letter was key; without proof that solid, the paper summarized, a typewriter is just a typewriter. Horowitz said he had privately expected $90,000 to $110,000, well above the official estimate but still far below the result.

The $11 twin

The replacement shows how little the object itself was worth. McCarthy told the Times that his friend had found another Olivetti just like the old one, practically brand new. As he recalled it, the friend paid about $11, and shipping was about $19.95, more than the typewriter.

So one Olivetti cost about $11 and its near-twin brought $254,500. The difference was provenance, and specifically documented provenance: the author's own letter, typed on the machine, tying it to specific books. For scale, NADA data reported by Auto Remarketing put the average retail price of a used car at U.S. dealers in 2009 at $14,976, roughly the low end of Christie's estimate.

One detail on where the money went: the sale benefited the Santa Fe Institute, but as with any auction, the buyer's premium is the auction house's fee rather than part of the proceeds.

Questions people ask

How much did Cormac McCarthy's typewriter sell for?

It sold for $254,500, including buyer's premium, at Christie's New York on Dec. 4, 2009. The hammer price was $210,000, against an estimate of $15,000 to $20,000.

What typewriter did Cormac McCarthy use?

An Olivetti portable manual typewriter, identified by The New York Times as a Lettera 32, which he bought in a Knoxville, Tennessee, pawnshop for $50.

Where did the money from McCarthy's typewriter auction go?

The sale was held to benefit the Santa Fe Institute, a nonprofit interdisciplinary research organization with which McCarthy was affiliated. The buyer's premium went to the auction house.

Sources

1. Cormac McCarthy's typewriter, lot 84, sale 2227 (Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts Including Americana)Christie's · 2009-12-04
2. No Country for Old Typewriters: A Well-Used One Heads to AuctionThe New York Times · 2009-11-30
3. Australian Associated Press report on the Christie's sale, republishedAAP via The Nabokovian · 2009-12-05
4. The $254,500 TypewriterChapter 16 (Humanities Tennessee) · 2009-12-10
5. Glenn Horowitz sells a very special typewriter27east · 2010-01-02
6. NADA reveals '09 used-vehicle trends at franchised dealersAuto Remarketing · 2010-07-30
7. The 80th Academy Awards (2008)Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences · 2008

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