second job as the caretaker of the apartment build-
ing requires that he deal with obstreperous and de-
manding tenants. One evening, he begins a fateful
collaboration with his daughter Millie, a young
woman who hopes to practice her stenographic and
secretarial skills. Each night, for a few weeks, Millie
types the letters that her father dictates to powerful
businessmen and tycoons of the day. The evenings
with Millie allow for a “chameleon change of a
Court Street janitor to J. Lucius Jones, dealer in
stocks and bonds.” The father relishes the chance to
engage, even in fantasy, in serious business dealings
that test his mettle and indulge his own thwarted
professional aspirations. He begins to “stride up and
down, earnestly and seriously debating the advisabil-
ity of buying copper with the market in such a fluc-
tuating state” (14). He begins to mail the letters
that he writes to himself and takes secret pleasure in
his correspondence. When Millie sells the type-
writer without any warning, her father suffers a great
and perhaps life-threatening shock. “Silence...
crowded in on him, engulfed him. That blurred
his vision, dulled his brain. Vast, white, impenetra-
ble... His ears strained for the old, familiar sound.
And silence beat upon them” (17). The story ends
in dramatic fashion as “J. Lucius Jones crashed and
died” (17).
The story is a jarring and insightful commen-
tary on the effect that thwarted ambitions can
have on earnest and imaginative individuals. The
pathos of the story is reinforced by the seemingly
impenetrable alienation that the nameless every-
man who comes to life as J. Lucius Jones experi-
ences. The story is one of several piercing
commentaries on the tragic and sometimes unre-
lenting nature of modern domestic life that West
published during the Harlem Renaissance.
“The Typewriter,” published in the July 1926
issue of OPPORTUNITY,tied for second place with
“Muttsy” by ZORANEALEHURSTONin the maga-
zine’s annual literary competition. Judges of the
short story entries, who awarded first prize to
ARTHURHUFFFAUSETfor “SYMPHONESQUE,” in-
cluded JEANTOOMER,CARLVANDOREN,ZONA
GALE, and BLANCHEWILLIAMS.Bibliography
Saunders, James Robert, and Renae Shackelford. The
Dorothy West Martha’s Vineyard: Stories, Essays, and
Reminiscences by Dorothy West Writing in the Vineyard
Gazette.Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2001.
West, Dorothy. “The Typewriter.” In The Richer, the
Poorer: Stories, Sketches, and Reminiscences, by
Dorothy West. New York: Doubleday, 1995.532 “Typewriter, The”