Comment by throwaway328

I really should have included Bob Chassell, of "Intro to Emacs Lisp" fame, what a personable and gentle introduction for beginners! Very beginner-focused, but if you read it as a beginner, it's like your slightly chatty Uncle introducing you to the family business. Which just so happens to be - writing a lisp language to learn to extend a lisp software platform which includes a text editor. I loved it.