WATCH: Jack Carr Unboxes a Hemingway Typewriter, Talks 'Savage Son'

This is the first of five videos about author and former Navy SEAL Jack Carr. Why? Because Carr is on the cover of the October/November 2020 issue of Ballistic Magazine. Grab your copy at OutdoorGroupStore.com. Watch above as he talks about his new Hemingway typewriter and his newest novel, ‘Savage Son.’

How does best-selling thriller writer and former Navy SEAL Jack Carr go analog? On Ernest Hemingway’s manual typewriter, of course.

Both as a former U.S. Navy SEAL and fiction writer, Jack Carr is mindful of those who came before him. Sometimes those connections are deeply personal, such as his grandfather, a U.S. Marine Corps Corsair pilot killed in World War II. Other times, those connections are more distant and various, such as the writers that influenced his thinking and post-military career choice. However, a reader’s gift of the 1950’s era Royal manual typewriter used by Ernest Hemingway to write “A Moveable Feast” created a tactile link to one of Carr’s most significant literary inspirations.

Jack Carr, His Hemingway Typewriter & ‘Savage Son’

Carr recently unboxed Hemingway’s Royal typewriter in Park City, Utah. He discussed the typewriter itself, as well as his latest book, “Savage Son.” Still fully functional and loaded with the original ribbon, the grey-framed and green Bakelite-keyed typewriter looked as if it traveled to Utah in a time machine rather than a padded box. The typewriter originally belonged to A. E. Hotchner, Hemingway’s editor and close friend who passed away this year at the age of 102.

Hotchner lent the machine to Hemingway in the fall of 1959. He also found Hemingway an apartment at 1 East 62nd Street, just off Fifth Avenue, in New York City. Hotchner and Hemingway spent the previous months together in Spain for “The Dangerous Summer,” where Hemingway chronicled the rivalry between two bullfighters. Hemingway used the typewriter for many months working on “A Moveable Feast,” his tale of early days spent among writing giants the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and James Joyce. Hemingway returned the typewriter to Hotchner in 1960.

In 2019 at over 100 years of age, Hotchner told his friend John Reznikoff that he did not plan on living this long, and the expenses of old age were catching up to him. Reznikoff, an auctioneer of historical and literary items, agreed to help.

Carr plans to use the typewriter to clack out personal notes to select recipients of his books. Today, Carr is fully digital, completing his fourth book, “The Devil’s Hand,” scheduled for release by Atria/Simon and Schuster in April 2021. But should the lights go out, Carr has a back-up platform and Hemingway’s spirit to guide him along.

Watch the unboxing and more in the video above. Want to read the entire article? Grab a copy of the October/November 2020 issue of Ballistic Magazine at OutdoorGroupStore.com.

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