Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
The legendary SICP textbook - a masterpiece of computer science education using Scheme.
(Learn Lisp)
A curated collection of resources to master the most elegant family of programming languages
(journey (from 'curious) (to 'enlightened))()()()
(A Brief History)
1958
The Birth of Lisp
John McCarthy creates Lisp at MIT, making it the second-oldest high-level programming language still in use today (after Fortran).
1975
Scheme Emerges
Gerald Jay Sussman and Guy L. Steele Jr. create Scheme, a minimalist dialect emphasizing lexical scoping and tail-call optimization.
1984
Common Lisp Standard
Common Lisp is standardized, unifying many Lisp dialects into a powerful, feature-rich language.
2007
Clojure Arrives
Rich Hickey releases Clojure, bringing Lisp to the JVM with immutable data structures and modern concurrency primitives.
2017+
The Renaissance
New dialects like Janet, Fennel, and Hy bring Lisp ideas to embedded systems, game development, and Python interop.
(General Lisp Resources)
The Little Schemer
A delightful, mind-bending introduction to recursive thinking and Lisp through Socratic dialogue.
Lisp: A Language for Stratified Design
Harold Abelson and Gerald Sussman's paper on why Lisp is ideal for building complex systems.
Paul Graham's Lisp Essays
Influential essays on Lisp including 'Beating the Averages' and 'What Made Lisp Different'.
(Common Lisp)
The industrial-strength Lisp with an extensive standard library, powerful metaprogramming, and decades of real-world use.
Practical Common Lisp
Peter Seibel's modern, practical introduction to Common Lisp. Available free online.
Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction
David Touretzky's beginner-friendly book with a focus on symbolic computation.
On Lisp
Paul Graham's advanced exploration of Lisp macros and bottom-up programming.
Let Over Lambda
Doug Hoyte's deep dive into closures and advanced macro techniques.
Common Lisp HyperSpec
The complete ANSI Common Lisp specification - the authoritative reference.
Lisp-Lang.org
Modern Common Lisp community site with tutorials, library documentation, and success stories.
SBCL
Steel Bank Common Lisp - a high-performance, open source Common Lisp compiler.
Portacle
A portable, multiplatform Common Lisp development environment. Perfect for beginners.
(Scheme)
The minimalist Lisp that proves less is more. Scheme's elegance makes it ideal for teaching and language research.
The Scheme Programming Language
R. Kent Dybvig's comprehensive guide to Scheme, covering R6RS.
How to Design Programs
A systematic approach to program design using Racket/Scheme. Great for beginners.
CHICKEN Scheme
A practical Scheme that compiles to C. Great FFI and egg repository.
Guile
GNU's official extension language. Powers Guix, LilyPond, and more.
Chez Scheme
One of the fastest Scheme implementations, now open source.
Scheme Wiki
Community wiki with tutorials, idioms, and implementation comparisons.
(Racket)
The "language-oriented programming" language. Build your own languages with Racket's unmatched DSL capabilities.
The Racket Guide
The official introduction to Racket - well-written and comprehensive.
Beautiful Racket
Matthew Butterick's guide to making languages with Racket. Inspiring and practical.
Realm of Racket
Learn Racket by building games. Fun illustrated approach.
Racket Documentation
Exemplary documentation covering the language and all bundled packages.
Racket Discord
Active community chat for Racket programmers of all levels.
(Clojure)
Modern Lisp for the JVM, JavaScript, and CLR. Immutable data, functional programming, and practical concurrency.
Clojure for the Brave and True
Daniel Higginbotham's fun, irreverent introduction to Clojure. Free online.
Clojure from the Ground Up
Kyle Kingsbury's (Aphyr) excellent tutorial series for beginners.
ClojureScript Unraveled
Comprehensive guide to ClojureScript for frontend development.
4Clojure
Practice Clojure with interactive coding exercises.
Clojure.org
Official site with guides, references, and community resources.
ClojureTV
Conference talks and tutorials from Rich Hickey and the Clojure community.
Babashka
Fast-starting Clojure for scripting. Write Clojure scripts that start instantly.
(Emacs Lisp)
The Lisp powering Emacs - one of the most extensible programs ever created. Customize everything.
An Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp
Official GNU tutorial for Emacs Lisp beginners.
Emacs Lisp Reference Manual
The complete reference for Emacs Lisp. Comprehensive and authoritative.
Mastering Emacs
Mickey Petersen's excellent book on becoming an Emacs power user.
EmacsWiki
Community wiki with tips, code snippets, and configuration ideas.
(Janet)
A lightweight Lisp for scripting and system programming. Embeddable in applications like Lua, not to be confused with embedded devices.
Janet Documentation
Official documentation covering the language, standard library, and C API.
Janet for Mortals
A friendly introduction to Janet by Ian Henry.
Jaylib
Janet bindings for Raylib. Make games with Janet!
JPM
Janet Project Manager - package manager and build tool for Janet projects.
(Other Lisps & Inspired Languages)
The Lisp family keeps growing. These languages bring Lisp ideas to new domains and platforms.
Fennel
A Lisp that compiles to Lua. Perfect for game development with L?VE2D.
Hy
A Lisp embedded in Python. Access Python's ecosystem with Lisp syntax.
Picolisp
A radically minimalist Lisp focused on simplicity and expressiveness.
LFE (Lisp Flavoured Erlang)
Lisp syntax for the Erlang VM. Distributed, fault-tolerant Lisp.
Carp
A statically typed Lisp without garbage collection for real-time systems.
uLisp
A Lisp for microcontrollers. Run Lisp on Arduino, ESP32, and other embedded devices.
Wisp
Lisp with optional indentation-based syntax. Python-like looks, Lisp semantics.
Arc
Paul Graham's experimental Lisp dialect focused on brevity.
Bel
Paul Graham's latest Lisp specification - a spec for a new dialect.
JavaScript
"Scheme in the browser" they said. First-class functions, closures, and lambda... under a Java costume.