The House of Dust (Python reconstruction)

Notes

Runnable reconstruction of Alison Knowles & James Tenney's 1967 computer poem 'A House of Dust' (the first computer-generated poem). The original FORTRAN IV punch-card source does not survive; this is Nick Montfort's faithful Python re-implementation (c 2014, 2024) from his Memory Slam collection, recovered from the poem's published output. Clearly a reconstruction, NOT the original code. Redistributed under its permissive notice (copyright + permission preserved). The archived PDF carries a provenance page and the full syntax-preserved source; the raw runnable script is stored beside it at the_house_of_dust.py. Held with the two 2016 A House of Dust journals; the original 1967 Something Else Press book remains a hunt-list grail.