Jerry Pournelle and the Personal Computer

There was a really cool article that came out in The Atlantic a while back about a book called Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing, by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum that raised an interesting question: who was the first author to write their novel on a personal computer?

The answer, unsurprisingly, is a science fiction author: Jerry Pournelle, who's known for some of his military SF books and his fairly right-wing politics. Science Fiction authors were early adopters, which makes sense, given the field's origins in tech reporting and promotion.

Kirschenbaum's book is a really fascinating one: a crunchy, niche-y history of this weird, obscure topic that touches everyone. It's one of those things that I'd never thought about, but it's an interesting history.

Go read Jerry Pournelle and the Personal Computer over on Kirkus Reviews.