The Beautiful Child (2012)
“I knew there had been a male typewriter named McAlpine, who had preceded me in London, and at first I was nervous that his skills had been much superior to mine – for I found a note in his handwriting in the Green Room desk here which boasted that ‘the Screw had turned’ one morning when his employer asked him to go faster; and he mentioned a total of words per hour which was infinitely greater than mine. Whether this alleged slowness of McAlpine had caused HJ to dismiss him I do not know; but h...e has always shown great respect in his dealings with me, and in the six years in which I had the privilege of transcribing his work – including corrections for the New York edition of his œuvre, along with two major novels – we seldom disagreed over anything. I had learnt not to suggest a word for Mr James, on the rare occasions he stopped in mid-flow and agonized over the correct one, and I believe my tactful silences were in fact a help to him as he composed – while I, in turn, gained a few moments of rest as the unspoken deliberations went on.MoreLess
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