The Pencil of Nature, published in six installments between 1844 and 1846, was the "first photographically illustrated book to be commercially published" or "the first commercially published book illustrated with photographs". It was wholly executed by the new art of Photogenic Drawing, without any aid whatever from the artist's pencil and regarded as an important and influential work in the
history of photography. Written by
William Henry Fox Talbot and published by
Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans in London, the book detailed Talbot's development of the
calotype process and included 24
calotype prints, each one pasted in by hand, illustrating some of the possible applications of the new technology. Since
photography was still very much a novelty and many people remained unfamiliar with the concept, Talbot felt compelled to insert the following notice into his book:
- The plates of the present work are impressed by the agency of Light alone, without any aid whatever from the artist's pencil. They are the sun-pictures themselves, and not, as some persons have imagined, engravings in imitation.