I wrote a technical history book on Lisp
The book page links to a blog post that explains how I got about it (and has a link to sample content), but the TL&DR is that I could not find a lot of books that were on "our" history _and_ were larded with technical details. So I set about writing one, and some five years later I'm happy to share the result. I think it's one of the few "computer history" books that has tons of code, but correct me if I'm wrong (I wrote this both to tell a story and to learn :-)). My favorite languages are Smalltalk and Lisp, but as an Emacs user, I've been using the latter for much longer and for my…
I wrote a technical history book on Lisp launched on February 17, 2026 with 252 votes, #106 of 16,628 launches that month and more than 99% of that year's launches.
In plain words
This is a technical history book on Lisp that combines historical narrative with extensive code examples. Written over five years by someone seeking a computer history resource that included substantial technical details, it covers the Lisp programming language with a focus on Common Lisp. The book is designed for readers interested in both the evolution of Lisp and its practical implementation, featuring authentic code throughout rather than simplified explanations.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Cees de Groot has put together a masterpiece of scholarship . “The Genius Of Lisp” is a book published by Berksoft Publications on the history of arguably the most powerful programming language in the history of computing. Here is some background by the author, Cees de Groot (that’s me! ;-)). This page is the jumping board for content that complements the book. If you want to read a sample, Amazon has got you covered with their standard preview of frontmatter up and including the introductory chapter. If you want a full chapter, here is chapter 8 in PDF format . We’re still working on extending the book’s reach, but here is an up-to-date list of places where…from berksoft.ca
In the maker’s words, at launch
The book page links to a blog post that explains how I got about it (and has a link to sample content), but the TL&DR is that I could not find a lot of books that were on "our" history _and_ were larded with technical details. So I set about writing one, and some five years later I'm happy to share the result. I…
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