American Writers Museum

About this audio guide

This guide to the American Writers Museum in Chicago starts with a simple question: why does the museum hand visitors a manual typewriter and ask them to finish a stranger's sentence. Inside the Mind of a Writer gallery, you'll learn how the exhibits break the craft itself apart, from choosing the right word to forcing a routine onto a blank page every morning. The guide also traces Jack Kerouac's marathon scroll manuscript for On the Road, taped together sheet by sheet so the typing never had to stop.