Typewriter in the Sky is a science fantasy novel by American writer L. Ron Hubbard. The protagonist Mike de Wolf finds himself inside the story of his friend Horace Hackett's book. He must survive conflict on the high seas in the Caribbean during the 17th century, before eventually returning to his native New York City. Each time a significant event occurs to the protagonist in the story he hears the sounds of a typewriter in the sky. At the story's conclusion, de Wolf wonders if he is still a character in someone else's story. The work was first published in a two-part serial format in 1940 in Unknown Fantasy Fiction. It was twice published as a combined book with Hubbard's work Fear. In 1995 Bridge Publications re-released the work along with an audio edition.
Writers have placed the story within several different genres, including science fiction, a subgenre of science fiction called recursive science fiction, and fantasy. Masters of the Occult author Daniel Cohen noted the book contributed to Hubbard's reception among influential science fiction authors of the 1940s. It is regarded as classic science fiction by The Houghton Mifflin Dictionary of Biography in its entry on Hubbard, as well as by writer James Gunn, and publications including the Daily News of Los Angeles, and Chicago Sun-Times. Writers have placed Typewriter in the Sky within the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Authors Mike Resnick and Robert J. Sawyer classed the story within the science fiction subgenre recursive science fiction, and writer Gary Westfahl wrote that Hubbard may have been influenced by the 1921 Luigi Pirandello play within the recursive fantasy subgenre, Six Characters in Search of an Author. The book is listed in Fantasy: The 100 Best Books, and Rivals of Weird Tales: 30 Great Fantasy and Horror Stories from the Weird Fiction Pulps placed it among the best quality fantasy writing of the 20th century. Writers characterized the overarching theme within the book as dealing with an individual caught between two different worlds.
Typewriter in the Sky was generally well-received, and regular readers of Hubbard's stories at the time widely appreciated the work. Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas wrote in a 1951 review that the story was amusing though it could have used copy editing, and Groff Conklin described its concept as silly. The New York Times review the same year said it had a lively pace. Damon Knight was critical of the depiction of the protagonist's fate, and concluded the ending of the book made up for this defect. Books including The Classic Era of American Pulp Magazines and Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines characterized the work as one of Hubbard's best stories. Adam Roberts pointed out Hubbard likely based the character of pulp fiction writer Horace Hackett on himself.
Subsequent to the story's publication, commentators have speculated that its influence impacted themes in later science fiction works. Paul Di Filippo wrote that the 1949 book What Mad Universe by Fredric Brown may have drawn from Hubbard's tale. Umberto Rossi asserted in a book on writer Philip K. Dick that Typewriter in the Sky likely influenced Dick's first published short story "Beyond Lies the Wub" (1951), in addition to his novel The Cosmic Puppets (1957). Harlan Ellison compared it to the 1985 film The Purple Rose of Cairo. Gary Westfahl likened the Typewriter in the Sky to the 2006 film Stranger than Fiction, going so far as to suggest the two had virtually an identical narrative.
Plot summary The story begins in Greenwich Village, New York. The main character, Mike de Wolf, is a struggling pianist. His friend, Horace Hackett, is an author and popular pulp fiction writer. Hackett is portrayed in the book as a skilled writer able to quickly produce voluminous amounts of material for pulp magazines. Hackett writes under stress, as he is facing a deadline. Hackett attempts to persuade his book publisher that he has almost finished writing his latest novel, while in actuality he has already depleted his advance payment prior to coming up with an idea for a story. Hackett's publisher pressures him and he rapidly decides to place his friend Mike as the central character in his story.
Hackett writes about Mike as the villain in his book, a swashbuckling adventure story. Mike enters the bathroom of Hackett's basement-level apartment, and hears the sound of someone typing on a typewriter. After electrocuting himself, Mike loses consciousness. He subsequently awakens to find himself on a beach in the year 1640, as a character within his friend's novel. He inspects himself to find he has a saber attached to his person, and is wearing strange attire.
Mike learns he is regarded in this world as the villain, Spanish Admiral Miguel de Lobo, a "pirate potboiler". He knows that the villains in stories written by Hackett often do not come to a favorable end, and is therefore anxious to exit the situation safely. Mike recognizes the specific work into which he has been transported: a tale by his friend called "Blood and Loot". Assuming the role of the villain, Mike realizes he must face off against a formidable opponent in the story, its protagonist named Tom Bristol.
The story takes place on the high seas in the Caribbean during the 17th century during a conflict among colonists. When a major event occurs, Mike hears the sound of a typewriter in the sky. Mike's reality literally changes each time the author makes a change to the story. Mike realizes that during times when he hears the audible sounds of the typewriter, his actions and words are not of his own volition, and when such sounds are absent he is able to make decisions for himself. Mike falls in love with a woman in the story, and grows frustrated after realizing that she is just another of Hackett's fictional creations. At the end of the work, Mike returns to New York, and is left with lingering doubts whether he is still a character in someone else's story. He muses whether a "typewriter in the sky" is creating the world. Mike looks up into the sky in search of this mystical device or its controller: "Abruptly Mike de Wolfe stopped. His jaw slackened a trifle and his hand went up to his mouth to cover it. His eyes were fixed upon the fleecy clouds which scurried across the moon. Up there – God? In a dirty bathrobe?"
Publication history
Typewriter in the Sky was first published in 1940 as a two-part serial in Unknown Fantasy Fiction. The first part of the serial initially sold in 1940 for US$0.20. Master Storyteller: An Illustrated Tour of the Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard author William J. Widder said in an interview with Publishers Weekly that 1940 became an annus mirabilis for Hubbard, "a kind of year every author wants". Widder said in addition to Typewriter in the Sky, Hubbard's successful 1940 fiction stories published in Unknown included Fear, Final Blackout, and Death's Deputy. Hubbard first registered copyright for the book on May 15, 1951, and later renewed copyright on September 17, 1979.Long Record. Title: Typewriter in the Sky and Fear. Author: L. Ron Hubbard. Registration Date: 15 May 1951. Renewal Date: 17 September 1979. Registration Number: A60901. Renewal Id: RE035592. Renewing Entity: L. Ron Hubbard (A). Old Class Code Limitation of Claim; New Matter NM: additions & revisions.MISC: C.O. corres. Collections: Copyright Renewal Database , Stanford University. In 1951 it was published by Gnome Press as a combined work with Hubbard's Fear, and again in 1977 as Fear & Typewriter in the Sky, published by Popular Library. In the UK, the combined work was first published in 1952 as number 409 in the Cherry Tree Book series by Kemsley Newspapers Limited. The title for this 1952 UK edition was Typewriter in the Sky: An Adventure in Time.
Typewriter in the Sky was republished in 1995 by Bridge Publications. Science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson wrote an introduction to the 1995 edition of the book. The same year Bridge Publications released an audio edition read by Jim Meskimen. The audio edition was an abridged version of the story and ran two hours thirty minutes in duration. L. Ron Hubbard's literary agency Author Services Inc. announced that Typewriter in the Sky would be included in "a 12-volume series of 23 classic science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories" published by Easton Press of Norwalk, Connecticut in September 1995. In 2008 Heritage Auctions, Inc. valued a rare combined copy of Typewriter in the Sky and Fear at between US$100 and $200.
Genres Daniel Cohen wrote in Masters of the Occult (1971) that works including Typewriter in the Sky, Fear, and Slaves of Sleep "moved Hubbard into the front rank of science fiction writers of the late 1940s." Writing in Dream makers: The Uncommon Men and Women Who Write Science Fiction (1983), Charles Platt called the book, "one of Hubbard's most well-known and playful pieces". The St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture (2000) described Typewriter in the Sky and Fear as Hubbard's "most famous stories" in the genre of science fiction. The Houghton Mifflin Dictionary of Biography (2003) in its biographical entry on L. Ron Hubbard characterized Typewriter in the Sky and Slaves of Sleep among classics in science fiction, as did The Riverside Dictionary of Biography (2004). The book was similarly described as a science fiction classic by author James Gunn in his book The Witching Hour (2003), and media publications including the Daily News of Los Angeles, and the Chicago Sun-Times. Eric Solstein and Gregory Moosnick placed the work within the Golden Age of Science Fiction.
In the book Resnick at Large (2003), authors Mike Resnick and Robert J. Sawyer cited Typewriter in the Sky as an example of the subgenre of science fiction – recursive science fiction, described as "science fiction about science fiction". In the work, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders (2005), Gary Westfahl commented, "Recursive fantasy fiction – that is, a fantasy about writing fantasy – is scarce. Luigi Pirandello's play Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921) offered a non-genre model." Westfahl noted that Hubbard's book was "an early genre example, perhaps inspired by Pirandello". Umberto Rossi wrote in The Twisted Worlds of Philip K. Dick (2011) that Typewriter in the Sky included a game in the form of metafiction within its plot development.