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Part of
A Comparative History of the Literary Draft in Europe
Edited by Olga Beloborodova and Dirk Van Hulle
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXV] 2024
► pp. 75–86

1.1.5
The twentieth century

Nib, type, word

This chapter offers an overview of tendencies in manuscript revision habits over the twentieth century, providing examples from twenty different writers. While the typewriter was already widely used by the end of the nineteenth century, handwriting remained the primary mode of initial literary composition until well into the twentieth; the first section of this chapter explores this practice and variations on it. Around mid-century, writers were more actively exploring the creative opportunities offered by composition on a typewriter. The chapter’s final section explores the effect of word-processing technologies on authors’ revision habits, as well as the advent of the “born digital” manuscript, and the challenge presented by the digital archive.
Keywords: revision, composition, editing, draft, holograph, typewriter, typescript, word processor, error, archive
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