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Typewriters click with history

L.A. civic leader Steve Soboroff’s collection includes a typewriter used by Ernest Hemingway. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Steve Soboroff’s collection includes typewriters used by George Bernard Shaw and John Lennon. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Steve Soboroff types on a machine once owned by Ernest Hemmingway. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Steve Soboroff bought the typewriter of Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray at an auction. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Last year, Steve Soboroff bought at government auction the Signature Portable seized from the cabin of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Steve Soboroff contacted Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski in an attempt to learn details about his typewriter. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Among Steve Soboroff’s finds is a movie prop used in the 1973 film “The Way We Were,” starring Robert Redford as a novelist and screenwriter and Barbra Streisand as a political firebrand. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Steve Soboroff made a cold call to one of Andy Rooney’s neighbors for help in acquiring the author’s typewriter. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

This Imperial Good Companion Model T was used by John Lennon to write song lyrics. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)