Racter (1984): The Computer That Wrote a Book

In 1984, a program called Racter, written in BASIC on a Z80 micro with 64K of RAM, generated an entire book of prose and poetry, 'The Policeman's Beard Is Half-Constructed.' The book was proofread for spelling but otherwise unedited. Racter could conjugate verbs, pluralize nouns, and string words together using syntax directives, producing output that was new, unknowable, and apparently thoughtful. This UbuWeb page presents the full text as a PDF, preserving a landmark in early AI-generated literature.