Description: "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"--
Brief description: Carol 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.
Review Quotes:
"A fascinating voyage of discovery demonstrating why, in an age of electronic everything, the pencil still grips us." --Daniel Rosenberg, Professor of History, University of Oregon, USA, and author of Cartographies of Time: A History of the Timeline
"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." --Robert A. Gross, author of The Transcendentalists and Their World (2021) "Pencil is a quick read (113 pages in 10 chapters), and an interesting exploration of where and how pencils are made, what sets them apart from each other, and how they maintain their usefulness and appeal in a world inundated with technology. After all, there's a reason that an estimated two billion pencils are made worldwide every year." --Society for Technical Communication