The Policeman's Beard Is Half Constructed is a 1984 collection of poems and short prose that was touted as "the first book ever written by a computer." It is generally agreed that the sophistication claimed for the program was likely exaggerated. The book's "author," Racter — short for Raconteur — was an artificial intelligence computer program written by William Chamberlain and Thomas Etter that generated English language prose at random. Illustrations by Joan Hall.