Editing Ted Nelson (section)

== Early life and education ==
Nelson is the son of [[Emmy Awards|Emmy Award]]–winning director [[Ralph Nelson]] and [[Academy Awards|Academy{{nbsp}}Award]]{{nbnd}}winning actress [[Celeste Holm]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Love and Inheritance: A Family Feud |newspaper=The New York Times|author=John Leland|author-link=John Leland (journalist)|date=July 2, 2011 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/nyregion/love-and-inheritance-celeste-holms-family-feud.html|access-date=July 3, 2011 |url-access=limited|archive-date=June 17, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220617073440/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/nyregion/love-and-inheritance-celeste-holms-family-feud.html |url-status=live}}</ref> His parents' marriage was brief and he was mostly raised by his grandparents, first in Chicago and later in [[Greenwich Village]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/nelson.html|title=Internet Pioneers: Ted Nelson |publisher=Ibiblio|access-date=July 3, 2011|archive-date=November 15, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221115132953/http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/nelson.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Nelson earned a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in philosophy from [[Swarthmore College]] in 1959. Following a year of graduate study in sociology at the [[University of Chicago]], Nelson began graduate work in Social Relations, then a department at Harvard University, specializing in sociology, and ultimately earned a M.A in sociology from the Department of Social Relations in 1962.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0155.html|title=Ted Nelson and Xanadu |last1=Keep |first1=Christopher |last2=McLaughlin |first2=Tim|last3=Parmar|first3=Robin|work=The Electronic Labyrinth |publisher=University of Alberta|date=July 2000 |access-date=28 September 2022|archive-date=September 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928055953/http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0155.html|url-status=live}}</ref> After Harvard, Nelson worked as a photographer and filmmaker for a year at [[John C. Lilly]]'s Communication Research Institute in Miami, Florida, where he briefly shared an office with [[Gregory Bateson]]. From 1964 to 1966, he was an instructor in sociology at Vassar College.

During college and graduate school, Nelson began to envision a computer-based writing system that would provide a lasting repository for the world's knowledge, and also permit greater flexibility of drawing connections between ideas. This came to be known as [[Project Xanadu]].<ref name="inter6364">{{cite book |last1=Barnet |first1=Belinda |editor1-last=Dechow |editor1-first=Douglas |editor2-last=Struppa |editor2-first=Daniel |title=Intertwingled: The Work and Influence of Ted Nelson |date=2015 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |isbn=978-3-319-16925-5 |page=63-64 |edition=1 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-16925-5_9 |access-date=17 May 2025 |language=en |chapter=The Importance of Ted’s Vision|series=History of Computing |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-16925-5_9 }}</ref>

Much later in life, in 2002, Nelson obtained his [[doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] in media and governance from [[Keio University]].