Theodor Nelson's "Computer Lib / Dream Machines", Chicago 1974, bound tête-bêche.
Subtitled "You can and must understand computers NOW", 'Computer Lib' is regarded as the first book about the personal computer - it was published just before the release of the Altair 8800. 1/
Subtitled "You can and must understand computers NOW", 'Computer Lib' is regarded as the first book about the personal computer - it was published just before the release of the Altair 8800. 1/
This is the book that pioneered the democratisation of information technology, and was hugely influential on Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and others. It was described by Howard Rheingold as "the best-selling underground manifesto of the microcomputer revolution". 2/
Loosely based on the Whole Earth Catalog, with which it shares certain characteristics, the work is divided into numerous densely packed sections, each featuring pull quotes, cartoons, photographs, diagrams, sidebars and multiple typefaces. 3/
In the volume's flipside, 'Dream Machines: New Freedom through Computer Screens - a Minority Report', Nelson explores the countercultural possibilities of personal computers further, advocating their use in education, and their availability to everyone. 4/
Nelson was responsible for coining the terms 'hypertext' & 'hypermedia', and in 'Computer Lib' he expanded these concepts, at a time when the very first global networks were first being developed. Other terms Nelson uses in the book include 'Cybercrud' and 'Intertwingularity'. 5/
Most surviving copies of the book are reprints - this first printing, published in an edition of a few hundred copies, self-funded by the author, is seldom seen. Signed by the author in red ink to Henry Tropp, creator of the Computer Oral History Collection at the Smithsonian. 6/
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