The author takes readers on a fascinating tour of the pencil. Here is the indispensable object, from its origins in ancient Greece and Rome to it relation in engineering and technology. 46 photographs.
Read More
The author takes readers on a fascinating tour of the pencil. Here is the indispensable object, from its origins in ancient Greece and Rome to it relation in engineering and technology. 46 photographs.
Read Less
Add this copy of The Pencil: a History of Design and Circumstance to cart. $3.35, fair condition, Sold by Goodwill Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hillsboro, OR, UNITED STATES, published 1990 by Knopf Publishing Group.
Add this copy of The Pencil: a History of Design and Circumstance to cart. $4.00, fair condition, Sold by Seattle Goodwill rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Seattle, WA, UNITED STATES, published 1990 by Knopf Publishing Group.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fair. May have some shelf-wear due to normal use. Your purchase funds free job training and education in the greater Seattle area. Thank you for supporting Goodwill's nonprofit mission!
Add this copy of The Pencil: a History of Design and Circumstance to cart. $4.01, good condition, Sold by Southern Oregon Goodwill Indus rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Medford, OR, UNITED STATES, published 1990 by Knopf Publishing Group.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. The Cover has visible markings and wear. Cover art may not match stock image. Products and packages may require more time to be delivered due to limited transportation availability as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 impacts. Fast Shipping-Safe and Secure Mailer!
Add this copy of The Pencil: a History of Design and Circumstance to cart. $44.64, good condition, Sold by Reuseabook rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gloucester, GLOS, UNITED KINGDOM, published 1990 by Alfred a Knopf Inc.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. This book is in good condition but will show signs of previous ownership. Please expect some creasing to the spine and/or minor damage to the cover. Inscription on the first page, typically just a name but may include a dedication or a brief personal message.
Add this copy of The Pencil; a History of Design and Circumstance to cart. $45.00, very good condition, Sold by Ground Zero Books, Ltd. rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Silver Spring, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1990 by Alfred A. Knopf.
Edition:
First Edition [stated], presumed first printing
Publisher:
Knopf Publishing Group
Published:
1990
Language:
English
Alibris ID:
14775684902
Shipping Options:
Standard Shipping: $4.99
Trackable Expedited: $9.99
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very good in Very good jacket. xi, [1], 434 pages. Illustrations. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Format is 5.5 inches by 9.5 inches. Henry Petroski (February 6, 1942) is an American engineer specializing in failure analysis. A professor of history at Duke University. Petroski has written over a dozen books-beginning with To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design and including a number of titles detailing the industrial design history of common, everyday objects, such as pencils, paper clips, and silverware. He is a frequent lecturer and a columnist for the magazines American Scientist and Prism. Before beginning his work at Duke in 1980, Petroski worked at the University of Texas at Austin from 1968-74 and for the Argonne National Laboratory from 1975-80. Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University. In 2004, Petroski was appointed to the United States Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board and was reappointed in 2008. From an Amazon Review: Like most other human artifacts, the common pencil has a long and complex history. Henry Petroski, who combines a talent for fine writing with a deep knowledge of engineering and technological history, examines the story of the pencil, considering it not only as a thing in itself, but also as an exemplar of all things that are designed and manufactured. Petroski ranges widely in time, discussing the writing technologies of antiquity. But his story really begins in the early modern period, when, in 1565, a Swiss naturalist first described the properties of the mineral that became known as graphite. Petroski traces the evolution of the pencil through the Industrial Revolution, when machine manufacture replaced earlier handwork. Along the way, he looks at some of pencil making's great innovators--including Henry David Thoreau, who worked in his father's pencil factory, inventing techniques for grinding graphite and experimenting with blends of lead, clay, and other ingredients to yield pencils of varying hardness and darkness. Petroski closes with a look at how pencils are made today--a still-imperfect technology that may yet evolve with new advances in materials and design. --Gregory McNamee.
Add this copy of The Pencil: a History of Design and Circumstance to cart. $47.59, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1990 by Knopf.
Add this copy of The Pencil: a History of Design and Circumstance to cart. $49.95, very good condition, Sold by RARE BOOK CELLAR rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Pomona, NY, UNITED STATES, published 1990 by Alfred A. Knopf.
Add this copy of The Pencil: a History of Design and Circumstance to cart. $50.00, like new condition, Sold by J Mercurio Books Maps & Prints rated 2.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Garrison, NY, UNITED STATES, published 1990 by Knopf.
Add this copy of The Pencil: a History of Design and Circumstance to cart. $99.11, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from North Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1990 by Knopf.
Add this copy of The Pencil: a History of Design and Circumstance to cart. $120.31, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1990 by Knopf.
If you have a smidgen of curiosity -- if you ask, 'Why would anyone write about such a boring subject?', or 'Why pick that title?' -- pick up this book. As long as you have any interest in history, technology, people, blind spots, or just excellent -- no, make that superb -- writing, you will enjoy this book. You may even, as I did, put Henry Petroski on your list of favorite authors (between Donald Norman and Geoffrey Parker, perhaps). Lenin, Thoreau, and others appear in the pages, almost the way Hamlet does in _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead_; yet the motivating force behind the story remains exactly what the title promises, in understated, wry humor that the author shares with the reader. Even if you end up only tolerating the topic, the writing cannot be bettered; crates of editorial blue pencils could not improve upon Petroski's substance, style, and wit.
