There being no printing presses in New England, when the Puritan settlers wanted to publish a book, a fragile ship sailing across the North Atlantic to London had to carry the sole copy of a work they might have spent years writing.
Think of watching that ship sail away, your mind filled with fears of shipwreck, fire, deluges of saltwater, carelessness at any stage.
What if the ship had bad luck and the superstitious crew blamed it on an evil book? Suppose a cold, wet seaman used it as kindling!
The magic of laptops has made all those months of anxiety a thing of the past. Now, by pressing the wrong key, I can lose a manuscript instantly.
