Typewriter in the Sky
A metafiction reflection on the
relationship between life and fiction

Typewriter in the Sky
A metafiction reflection on the
relationship between life and fiction

In May 1940, Ron was working in a large apartment in New York City, at 243 Riverside Drive, overlooking the Hudson River. He was using a new IBM electric typewriter and pounded out close to a hundred words a minute.

Known for his well-deserved reputation as one of the fastest writers in the business, Ron was working with added urgency. In two months, no later than July, he planned to be at sea, sailing the tortuous waters of British Columbia and Alaska under the flag of the Explorers Club.

He had multiple objectives for the voyage: to help the US Navy Hydrographic Office re-chart the especially dangerous route from Puget Sound to Ketchikan; to test and develop a new experimental system of radio navigation; and to conduct ethnological studies among tribes that lived on those shores, continuing his long-standing research into the nature of different cultures.

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“It goes as fast as ever, the laughs haven’t diminished over the years, and it’s just too much fun to hold in academic awe as you’re reading it.”

—Mike Resnick
author of Starship: Mutiny

Typewriter in the Sky is one of the most influential books in the history of fiction. I’ve written some recursive fiction myself, and I think of Hubbard every time I sit down at my keyboard in my tattered bathrobe.”

George Alec Effinger
author of When Gravity Fails

“Fans and other writers were doing variations on that for years.”

—Frederik Pohl
author of Gateway

Discover the Audiobook

Abridged | 2½ hours | Narrated by Jim Meskimen

Typewriter in the Sky has been a huge influence on the field and is still vastly entertaining today.” —Tim Powers

“An adventure story written in the great style adventure should be written in.”

—Clive Cussler
author of Raise the Titanic!

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