Tom Hanks, Author? Comedic Actor Inspired By A Classic Writing Tool

Tom Hanks is a celebrated actor, with a string of hit movies and two Academy Awards to his credit. As a Hollywood A-lister, one would think Hanks delving into fiction with an upcoming collection of short stories would be inspired by his fame and success.

Not so. Hanks, as it turns out, was inspired a typewriter. Several, in fact, since as the Los Angeles Times notes, Hanks has a collection of classic typewriters that were the basis for the stories.

“I’ve been collecting typewriters for no particular reason since 1978 – both manual and portable machines dating from the thirties to the nineties. The stories are not about the typewriters themselves, but rather, the stories are something that might have been written on one of them.”

So enamored is Hanks with the typewriter that he created an app, the Hanx Writer, for fellow aficionados. According to The New York Times, the app mimics the movement and sound of a typewriter when you’re using the iPad. In an essay in the Times in 2013, Hanks said typewriters have computers beat because of the sound, the physicality of the act and the permanence of the letters on the paper.

“Short of chiseled words in stone, few handmade items last longer than a typed letter, for the ink is physically stamped into the very fibers of the paper, not layered onto the surface as with a laser-printed document… a hammer strikes an ink-stained ribbon, pressing the dye into the paper where it will be visible for perpetuity unless you paint it over or burn the page.”

The collection is set to be published by Knopf-Doubleday, although the release date and title are unknown. Curious readers can get a sample of Hanks’ prowess as a fiction writer by checking out The New Yorker, the October 27, 2014 issue to be precise, which includes one of Hanks’ stories.

According to the Times, it was that story that piqued the interest of literary publishers. In response to queries, Hanks proposed the idea of stories related to pictures of his typewriters.

In a New Yorker interview that coincided with his story being published, Hanks explained why he was writing now.

“I’ve been around great storytellers all my life and, like an enthusiastic student, I want to tell some of my own. And I read so much nonfiction that the details stack up in my head and need a rearranging sometimes.”

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Hanks’ rep recently denied he and his wife Rita Wilson are experiencing marital difficulties.

[Tom Hanks Image: Google]