Palimpsest

Matthew Battles is the author of Palimpsest and Library: An Unquiet History and a program fellow at the Berkman Center of Harvard University, where he is associate director of metaLAB, a research group exploring the bounds of networked culture.

"This fascinating exploration of the evolution of writing shows how, despite radical technological changes, the practice maintains its atavistic mystery... And the history of the written word, as this book makes clear, reveals the evolution of the human mind." -- W. Ralph Eubanks - Wall Street Journal "[E]xhilarating... Battles is a gifted stylist, and his history of writing is both a paean to the powers of language and an extended demonstration of his own prowess. Nearly every page features an example of beautiful writing about writing." -- Nick Romeo - Christian Science Monitor "An illuminating look at the origins and impact of writing ... richly detailed... Battles deftly excavates layers of human history from a wide range of sources... A fascinating exploration stylishly and gracefully told." -- Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review "Incredibly ambitious ... intriguing ... thoroughly researched and thought provoking." -- Library Journal "Dazzling." -- Publishers Weekly, Starred review "Anyone who can write a history of writing in fewer than 200 pages is either foolish or brilliant. Matthew Battles is brilliant. This is not an encyclopedic chronology but an extended essay that skips gracefully across the centuries, stopping wherever the most interesting stories lie." -- Anne Fadiman, author of Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader "From traces in clay to photon traces on the screens that surround us today, seeing roots and bones in the shapes of letters, Matthew Battles explores the deep origins and hidden structures of our written world. Scholarly and poetic, Palimpsest is a beautiful and engaging read for anyone who loves to write." -- Ethan Zuckerman, author of Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection "To call this book a profound meditation on what it means to be human would be to tell the truth but leave out all the fun. At once elegant and mischievous, Palimpsest is a great intellectual adventure that travels around the world on its way from the emergence of cuneiform to the future of cyberspace. It will charm and provoke any reader who has ever put pen to paper or typed into a text box, whether to attempt literature or scrawl today's to-do list." -- Elise Blackwell, author of Hunger and The Lower Quarter "Traveling through centuries and across continents, Battles finds unexpected connections and echoes that resonate with our own day. Surely this is what life in Borges's endless library must be." -- Martin Puchner, professor of drama and of English and comparative literature, Harvard University "The written word changed literally everything, allowing for history, the law, and civilization itself. But rarely is it appreciated for its own sake and its own beauty. Matthew Battles has written an essential text on the essence of writing. Whether it turns out to be an ode or an elegy, we have yet to see." -- Douglas Rushkoff, author of Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now