Pencil

Often overlooked, tucked into a drawer or stuffed into a case, the pencil is a tool whose simplicity belies its usefulness and indeed, as a work of design and technology that endures around the globe, its greatness. Often overlooked, tucked into a drawer or stuffed into a case, the pencil is a tool whose simplicity belies its usefulness and indeed, as a work of design and technology that endures around the globe, its greatness.

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.A cylinder of baked graphite and clay in a wood case, the pencil creates as it is being destroyed. To love a pencil is to use it, to sharpen it, and to essentially destroy it. Pencils were used to sketch civilization''s greatest works of art. Pencils were there marking the choices in the earliest democratic elections. Even when used haphazardly to mark out where a saw''s blade should make a cut, a pencil is creating. P il offers a deep look at this common, almost ubiquitous, object. Pencils are a simple device that are deceptively difficult to manufacture. At a time when many use cellphones as banking branches and instructors reach students online throughout the world, pencil use has not waned, with tens of millions being made and used annually. Carol Beggy sketches out how the lowly pencil is still a mighty useful tool. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.

This tribute to the lowly pencil is a celebration of the life of the mind and hand. Born in the sixteenth century, this familiar writing instrument lives on in our digital age as a tool of thought, indispensable for some, an object of nostalgia for others, collectible or disposable, a bond of community or a companion in solitude. Carol Beggy captures the presence of pencils in our lives with enthusiasm and wit. Her book is an object lesson in how to see and appreciate the humblest elements of existence and not to take anything for granted.

Autorentext
C**arol Beggy* is an award-winning writer and editor, who worked for many years as a print journalist, including 15 years with The Boston Globe*. She has worked as a public relations consultant, a television producer, an editor for blogs and newsletters, a producer and talent booker for podcasts, and speechwriter. She is the author or co-author of ten books, including six with renowned Boston photographer Bill Brett. She is a graduate of Northeastern University.

Inhalt

Introduction

1. Variations on a Theme
2. Making Their Mark
3. Tools of the Trade
4. People and Their Pencils
5. To Boldly Go
6. Collectors Versus Users
7. Pencils in the Wild
8. A Thoreau Job
9. Pencils Up
10. #FindYourPeople
    Afterword
    Notes
    Acknowledgments
    Selected Bibliography and Suggested Further Reading
    Index