14 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the dead could type—and famous names still had vanities and grudges to share?
In The Enchanted Typewriter, a writer gains a strange link to the world of the dead. His typewriter receives words from the shades of well-known historical figures. John Kendrick Bangs turns this unlikely connection into a light comic fantasy, where great reputations meet the small, familiar business of being human.
These comic stories explore the strange machine, the voices of famous figures, and what remains of fame beyond the grave. The first-person narrator stays slightly bewildered while the dead take the best lines. Puns, asides, and comic understatement keep the conversation quick, with affection softening the satire rather than sharpening it into cruelty.
What you’ll discover
- An unlikely connection Discover a typewriter that turns contact with the dead into an occasion for comedy.
- Fame with its guard down Meet historical shades whose grand reputations leave plenty of room for ordinary human vanity.
- Voices full of character Enjoy famous figures speaking in ways that play on the legends surrounding them.
- Questions beneath the jokes Look past the playful chatter to a quiet curiosity about fame and what lasts.
- Pleasure in short sittings Follow a conversational voice through puns, quick exchanges, and gently bewildered observations.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy gentle satire, puns and absurd logic, and like to see famous names behave like ordinary people.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A haunted machine becomes a partnership
- Arbitrary punishment brings demands for justice
- Xanthippe overturns the narrator's easy assumptions
- Invisible guests threaten a visible reputation
- Nonsense follows its own legal logic
- Famous talents meet familiar human motives
- Death leaves worldly vanity firmly intact
- Changing voices keep the comedy moving
- The afterlife holds up a mirror
Who’s who
- The narratorA mild, vain humorist who finds the old typewriter in his attic and agrees to publish what the ghosts type through it.
- Jim BoswellThe dead editor of the Stygian Gazette, who uses the machine to copy his notes and sends the narrator news from Hades.
- XanthippeThe wife of Socrates, a sharp new woman who takes over Boswell's newspaper and wants wives to become good fellows.
- ApollyonAlso called Old Nick, the arbitrary ruler of Hades, whose harsh rule provokes a revolt and demands for a constitution.
- Baron MunchausenThe famous teller of tall tales, who claims that Adam, Noah, Jonah and Shakespeare are impostors living off his earlier lives.
- Sherlock HolmesThe great detective, now a ferret in Hades, who tells how he found the owner of a lock of golden hair.
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The Enchanted Typewriter
by John Kendrick Bangs · 1899
Jim Boswell, editor of the Stygian Gazette, types on a library typewriter that starts clicking on its own.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to read20 languages
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In short
What would you do if the old typewriter in your library began clicking at a quarter to three in the morning, with nobody in the chair? The narrator of this book hides behind a hair sofa, then walks in armed with a sword cane.
The Enchanted Typewriter at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 45 min1 h 25 min fast, 2 h 10 min slow
- Length
- 25,500 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1899by John Kendrick Bangs
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A tinkerer finds a typewriter with a ghost
The story opens with a man who cannot leave a machine alone. Laid up with the flu, the narrator climbs into his attic and finds an old typewriter. He spends a whole morning taking it apart, cleaning it and putting it back together.
The machine proves useless for writing. His jokes vanish between the keys and the paper. When he types his own name, the machine prints William Shakespeare.
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Details
- First published
- 1899
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 0 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Bangs, John Kendrick. The Enchanted Typewriter. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-enchanted-typewriter.
Bangs, J. K. (2026). The enchanted typewriter. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-enchanted-typewriter (Original work published 1899)
Bangs, John Kendrick. The Enchanted Typewriter. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-enchanted-typewriter.
@book{bangs2026enchanted,
author = {Bangs, John Kendrick},
title = {The Enchanted Typewriter},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-enchanted-typewriter},
note = {First published 1899}
}
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What is The Enchanted Typewriter about?
A humorist finds an old typewriter in his attic and learns that ghosts from Hades use it at night. Jim Boswell, a dead editor, types news, tall tales and cases about the famous dead, all in a comic tone.
Who is Jim Boswell in The Enchanted Typewriter?
He is the ghost who first uses the typewriter. Boswell is the editor of the Stygian Gazette in Hades and is himself the biographer of Dr. Johnson. He types news and manuscripts and organizes tours to earth.
Who are Xanthippe and Baron Munchausen in this book?
Xanthippe is the wife of Socrates, who briefly edits Boswell's paper with strong views about equality of the sexes. Munchausen is the teller of tall tales who claims to have lived as Adam, Noah, Jonah and Shakespeare.
The author
John Kendrick Bangs
1862–1922 · American humorist and satirist
John Kendrick Bangs was an American author, editor and satirist. He was born in Yonkers, New York, in 1862 and died in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1922. He wrote novels, short stories and verse. His books include A House-Boat on the Styx (1895) and The Enchanted Typewriter (1899).
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