Behind the collection: 'The World's Greatest Typewriter Collection'

DALLAS - "Each one of these typewriters tells a really fascinating story—not just about the person, but how they used it," said Samantha Sisler with Heritage Auction, who detailed Steven L. Soboroff's typewriter collection.

In a memo for Heritage Auctions, Soboroff says, "The Collection took almost 20 years to put together ... Six of the 39 are now in The Smithsonian (appraised at an average of $251,000 each), and the remaining 33 are in today's auction."

"Steve tried to collect typewriters whose owners appeared on the cover of Time Magazine," Sisler shared. "So, we have influential people—some famous people, some infamous: From Bing Crosby and Shirley Temple; authors like Ernest Hemingway, Jack London; Hugh Hefner's typewriter."

Soboroff even got his hands on the typewriter owned by Ted Kaczynski, better known as "The Unabomber."

"Steve acquired this typewriter from an FBI auction of Kazinsky's belongings to raise money for reparations for the victims," Sisler explained. "We even have letters that will come with the typewriter from Steve when he wrote to Kazing in prison to say, 'Hey, doesn't this model have a case? It looks like half a typewriter. Where's the rest of it? Well it turns out the top of it was used to create one of the bombs."

Another interesting model is an IBM typewriter the company made specifically for Julie Andrews, with blue keys to match the color of her eyes. And Tom Hanks gave Soboroff a typewriter saying in a letter, "No collection is complete without an Hermes. Here is one of my gems..." describing the1963 Hermes 3000 model in jade green.

The oldest typewriter is an 1887 Crandall New model.

"The condition of this is unrivaled. The Smithsonian has one-doesn't look remotely like this," Sisler said. "That's mother of pearl inlay, detailed guild decorations-that's worn off of the Smithsonian one and this one is absolutely gorgeous."

Soboroff's fascination with typewriters all began when he went to sell a baseball glove at an auction. In the next lot, Sisler says the typewriter of legendary L.A. Times sports writer Jim Murray was up for sale and Sorobroff was taken back.

"He could not believe that his idol, really, that he could own such an important piece of Jim Murray's working and writing career," Sisler shared. "So that's what started it and once he started,  he couldn't stop."