I, Pencil
"I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read", commonly known as "I, Pencil", is an essay by Leonard Read and it was first published in the December 1958 issue of The Freeman.[1]
Essay
Template:Wikisource/outer coreScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"."I, Pencil" is written in the first person from the point of view of a pencil. The pencil details the complexity of its own creation, listing its components (cedar, lacquer, graphite, ferrule, factice, pumice, wax, glue) and the numerous people involved, down to the sweeper in the factory and the lighthouse keeper guiding the shipment into port.
It was reprinted in The Freeman in May 1996 and as a pamphlet entitled "I... Pencil" in May 1998. In the reprint, Milton Friedman wrote the introduction and Donald J. Boudreaux wrote the afterword.[2] Friedman used the essay in his 1980 PBS television show Free to Choose[3] and the accompanying book of the same name.[4] In the 2008 50th Anniversary Edition, the introduction is written by Lawrence W. Reed and Friedman wrote the afterword.[5]
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Further reading
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
External links
- I, Pencil, first edition version (1964), provided by Mises Institute
- Free to Choose: Power of the Market – The Pencil, PBS television show episode with Milton Friedman