If the Sterling is the classic, elegant Smith-Corona, the Cougar is its fun, slightly wild cousin. Just look at it.
That incredible turquoise body. Cream keys. Red accent keys. Chrome. And a name like Cougar.
This is peak mid-century industrial design.
The Cougar was part of Smith-Corona's 6-Series generation of portable typewriters, which followed the legendary Super 5 machines. By the 1960s, Smith-Corona had become one of America's major typewriter manufacturers, and its machines were increasingly designed not just as office equipment, but as attractive consumer products for the home.
Built for writing on the go. Designed to make you smile.
The body is substantial, but lightweight and sleek. The mechanical action is wonderfully direct, and the keyboard has that unmistakable tactile quality that makes vintage manual typewriters so addictive.
And Smith-Corona knew that people wanted their typewriters to have personality. The company's postwar 5-Series machines were deliberately offered in colors like, Alpine Blue and Coral Pink, helping turn the typewriter into a piece of modern American consumer design.
A fascinating piece of the Smith-Corona story
The early 1960s were an important period for Smith-Corona. In 1958 the company became Smith-Corona Marchant, Inc., and in 1962 adopted the SCM name and distinctive three-square logo you see on this machine. It's a little piece of the moment when American typewriter design was transitioning from the restrained postwar aesthetic into the bold, colorful world of 1960s consumer culture.
And there's a great literary connection to Smith-Corona, too: a 1960s Smith-Corona preserved by the National Museum of African American History and Culture belonged to writer Sarah E. Wright, who used it to write her acclaimed novel This Child's Gonna Live.
It's beautifully made. It's historically interesting. It's genuinely fun to type on.
And in that fabulous turquoise, it's almost impossible not to smile when you see it sitting on a desk, or at a coffeeshop. A statement of modern analog cool.
