INTERLISP: the language and its usage

LISP, as a language, has been around for about 25 years. It was originally developed to support artificial intelligence (AI) research. At first, it seemed to be little noticed except by a small band of academics who implemented some of the early LISP interpreters and wrote some of the early AI programs. In the early 60’s, LISP began to diverge as various implementations were developed for different machines. McCarthy gives a short history of its early days.