Photo via Wikimedia Commons
One example. Colors, sub-models, and production years vary; the machine you find may differ.
Royal Quiet De Luxe
light, snappy, lively, can run ahead of you
Smith-Corona's livelier cousin: lighter and snappier, a touch less smooth, loose enough to pile letters if you push the pace. Not as quiet as the name suggests.
The Royal Quiet De Luxe is Hemingway's machine, and also Tom Wolfe's, also Joan Didion's at various points. Made from 1939 through the late 1950s, with crinkle finish and glass keys in the earliest versions. Despite the name, it's not exceptionally quiet by modern standards. It is confident, decisive, and a pleasure to write on for long stretches. Among the most photographed portables in the world.
What people say
wrote on a Royal Quiet De Luxe; one is preserved at his Finca Vigía house in Cuba
— Ernest Hemingway
ordered a gold-plated Quiet De Luxe after finishing Casino Royale
— Ian Fleming
carried a Quiet De Luxe through his early reporting years
— Tom Wolfe
Used by
See & hear it for yourself
Manuals & repair
All sources
External, in their original form. The people who know these machines best — click through to read and watch.
Where to find one
Listings come and go. These show whatever Royal Quiet De Luxe machines are on the marketplace right now.
See Royal Quiet De Luxe listings on eBay marketplace
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Specifications
- Manufacturer
- Royal
- Origin
- United States
- Years
- 1939–1958
- Form
- Portable
- Mass
- 5 kg
- Shift
- carriage