The name Lisp derives from "LISt Processing". It was originally created as a practical mathematical notation for computer programs. See wikipedia for more information.
Hello World Program in Lisp
;;; Hello World in Common Lisp (defun helloworld () (print "Hello World!"))
Free Lisp Programming Books
- ANSI Common Lisp HyperSpec
- Common Lisp the Language, 2nd Edition (differs from the ANSI CL Standard)
- Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation - David S. Touretzky
- Common Lisp Quick Reference
- Let Over Lambda - 50 Years of Lisp
- On Lisp
- Practical Common Lisp
- Successful Lisp: How to Understand and Use Common Lisp - David Lamkins
- Sketchy LISP, An Introduction to Functional Programming in Scheme - Nils Holm
There is also a stackoverflow chat room: Lisp.