Hard-to-find complete issue of The Atlantic from July 1945 (Volume 176, No. 1), featuring the first appearance of Vannevar Bush's visionary essay, "As We May Think." Boston, MA: The Atlantic Monthly Company, 1945. Subscriber's edition in its original wrappers, 7.5 x 10.5, [1]-129,[5] pages. In good condition, with spine panel bare and reinforced by clear tape, front cover partially detached at top, tiny binding holes along left edge, and typical edgewear and light creases; interior clean and bright, with a clipped corner to the first page of "As We May Think" and a few trivial pencil marks to top margin of following pages.
Also includes a complete issue of Life from September 10, 1945, which features a reprint of "As We May Think" that includes illustrations of several of the concepts Bush puts forth-including the proposed memex desk, automatic typewriter, 'cyclops' universal-focus lens, and other futuristic technologies.
Vannevar Bush's article, found on pages 101-108 of The Atlantic, is important in the history of technology as it anticipates several major aspects of personal computing as we know it today, including hypertext, the internet, and online encyclopedias. His proposed 'Memex' was a system for storing, organizing, and retrieving vast amounts of data, consisting of a desk equipped with projection screens, keyboards, and levers that offered access to microfilmed texts and imagery. Though today accomplished in the digital realm with computers and software, the general concepts put forth by Bush have revolutionized everyday life through the widespread use of services like Google and Wikipedia.
