By Leonard E. Read, Foundation for Economic Education , 2006

Hundreds of thousands of Americans of all ages continue to enjoy this simple and beautiful explanation of the miracle of the “invisible hand” by following the production of an ordinary pencil. Read shows that none of us knows enough to plan the creative actions and decisions of others. 

I, Pencil is Leonard Read's most famous essay. The full title is "I, Pencil. My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read" and it was first published in the December, 1958 issue of The Freeman.

"I, Pencil" is written first-person from the point of view of an Eberhard Faber pencil who details the complexity of his own creation. He lists his 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.

Leonard E. Read (1898–1983) established the Foundation for Economic Education in 1946. For the next 37 years he served as FEE’s president and labored tirelessly to promote and advance liberty. Hewas a natural leader who, at a crucial moment in American history, 

Useful Links:

• I, Pencil: My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read, with Friedman and Boudreaux additions
• Full 17-minute audio version of I, Pencil at Foundation for Economic Education
• Four Essays by Leonard Read, a pdf of this essay and The Myth of the See-It-All, The Law Without, The Law Within, with a foreword by Edwin Feulner

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