Ha, ha, ha, BIG news. Yeah, it’s BIG news indeed (OK, we’ll stop): Tom Hanks, the universally most beloved human to have ever existed in the history of time and space (I mean, probably) will be writing a collection of short stories. And those stories will all revolve around his most beloved collectible: the typewriter.
Fans of the podcast are well aware of Hanks’ love of those word machines that go all clickity-clack — Hardwick’s typewriter gift is what convinced him to come on the show, after all — but this takes that adoration to a whole ‘nother level. A literary one.
Working together with fancy-schmancy publishing house Alfred A. Knopf, Hanks will write a series of stories inspired by a series of photos of the things he has in his own personal collection. According to a statement from the publisher obtained by The New York Times, “The stories are not about the typewriters themselves, but rather the stories are something that might have been written on one of them,” explained Hanks.
This isn’t Hanks’ first time at the writing rodeo, though his first foray was very recent. In October, the New Yorker published “Alan Bean Plus Four,” an original short story from the actor that followed four friends orbiting the moon in a DIY spaceship.
“I’ve been around great storytellers all my life and, like an enthusiastic student, I want to tell some of my own,” said Hanks when asked about his newly acquired literary ambitions.
Would you read a collection of short stories inspired by photographs of his typewriters? Think Hanks-y boy should read one to us all aloud? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Image: Walt Disney Studios
