Pencil

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. Pencil 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. Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication CONTENTS FIGURES Introduction Chapter 1: VARIATIONS ON A THEME Chapter 2: MAKING THEIR MARK Chapter 3: TOOLS OF THE TRADE Chapter 4: PEOPLE AND THEIR PENCILS Chapter 5: TO BOLDLY GO Chapter 6: COLLECTORSVERSUS USERS Chapter 7: PENCILS IN THE WILD Chapter 8: A THOREAU JOB Chapter 9: PENCILS UP Chapter 10: #FINDYOURPEOPLE AFTERWORD ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Notes Selected Bibliography and Suggested Further Reading Index