The Damn Machine: The Role of the Typewriter in the Genesis of Aaro Hellaakoski's Poetry

The present article examines the role of the typewriter in the writing process of Finnish modernist poet Aaro Hellaakoski (1893–1952). In his early period, Hellaakoski wrote solely by hand and used the proof stage for final revisions. On one occasion, this practice led to the publication of an unfinished work when the publisher forbade him from making any substantial changes to the text. Later, Hellaakoski acquired a typewriter in order to get the manuscripts of his works as finished as possible before sending them to the printer. Marshall McLuhan (1964) and Friedrich Kittler (1990, 1999), for instance, have argued that the typewriter imposed a radical change on the concept of the author and the writing process, and that it had a significant role in the development of modernist literature. However, by investigating Hellaakoski’s manuscripts, typescripts, and proofs, the article shows that instead of shaking the fundamental concepts of literature, the typewriter could also be used as a means to control the writing process.