
Part 1
Desperate to keep his rent paid and his stories flowing, a down‑and‑out writer scours the streets of a cramped Village flat for anything that might spark his imagination. He stumbles on a battered Remington at a third‑avenue pawn shop, bought for a laughable five dollars from a moustached dealer who seems oddly relieved to be rid of it. Back in his tiny kitchen, the machine promises an easy solution to the hard work of writing.
The moment he feeds paper and begins a simple opening, the keys start clacking on their own, completing lines in the voice of forgotten masters. Poe‑like verses appear beside his own half‑finished thoughts, and the typewriter’s uncanny output pulls him deeper into a mystery that hints at an alien origin from the distant world of Rigel IV. As curiosity turns to obsession, he must decide whether to trust the device or fear the cost of its silent assistance.
Language
en
Duration
~29 minutes (28K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2021-09-13
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1926–2005
Best known for the 87th Precinct novels written as Ed McBain, this hugely productive American writer helped define the modern police procedural. He also moved easily between crime fiction, screenwriting, and mainstream novels, with work that reached both bestseller lists and the screen.
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