Walter Jackson Ong was an American Jesuit priest, professor of English literature, cultural and religious historian and philosopher. His major interest was in exploring how the transition from orality to literacy influenced culture and changed human consciousness. In 1978 Ong served as elected president of the Modern Language Association of America.
From the blurb: Profound changes in thought processes and in personality and social structures were brought about by the invention of writing and the transformation from one stage of consciousness to another: from primary oral cultures to literate ones. Walter Ong here surveys and interprets the extensive work done during the last few decades, by himself and others, on the differences between orality and literacy.