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Interview #864: Computers Made It Easier, Entry #1
Harriet McDougal
Computers made it easier. Actually, first an electric typewriter made it easier. Robert Jordan was an engineer by training, and he really liked a clean typescript. He had begun by writing by hand on yellow legal pads, and when he switched to a typewriter he called his work “typing” rather than “writing.” This lasted for a while. He said, at one point, “The only difference between my work and that of a typist is that I have to make up what I type.” But of course he loved it.
And then computers entered our lives. I worked on a TRS-80, eventually adding an external drive; he cleverly bought an Apple III—a dog of a machine, which still contains some files we have never been able to access. Now that his papers and that machine are in the Addlestone Library of the College of Charleston, the archivists may be able to pry the information out.
Footnote
Harriet donated a collection of RJ’s notes and other Wheel of Time items to the Addleston Library at the College of Charleston in September 2012.
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