The Good Companion

I am in possession of no fewer than eleven mechanical typewriters in more or less working order, and another two that don’t currently work at all. One could all too easily argue it’s a few more than I really need. The machine shown above is my last-but-one acquisition, a 1937 Imperial ‘The Good Companion’ portable I bought about a year ago for the bargain price of £25. Despite its age it’s in handsome cosmetic condition and it still works well.

Among the symbols on its keyboard are acute and grave accents; a diaresis, tilde, cedilla and circumflex; and upside-down exclamation and question marks (¡/¿), such as could be used to type French, Portuguese or Spanish text. I wonder, given its date of manufacture, if it may have been intended for use in connection with the then-current Spanish Civil War.

‘The Good Companion’ as a product name was inspired by J.B. Priestley’s bestselling 1929 novel The Good Companions. After buying the typewriter, I bought a copy of the book. It proved to be a mostly upbeat comedy-drama following the vicissitudes of life on the road with an itinerant concert party (i.e. a vaudeville/variety troupe). It’s a story which hasn’t perhaps aged quite as gracefully as the typewriter, but I did enjoy it nevertheless.