Guess what I have in my hands right now (hehe):

Neal Stephenson issueth from a Clan of yeomen, itinerant Parsons, ingenieurs, and Natural Philophers that hath long dwelt in bucolick marches and rural Shires of his native Land, and trod the Corridors of her 'Varsities. At a young age, finding himself in a pretty Humour for the writing of Romances, and the discourse of Natural Philosophy and Technologick Arts, he took up the Pen, and hath no since laid it down.