From the (e)Bookshelf: Fire in the Valley

Among the many sources cited in the first volume of They Create Worlds, the title Fire in the Valley managed to catch my attention just a little more than many others, perhaps because it was referenced in the “dawn of personal computing” section. The first edition of that book by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine had been talked up just a bit in mid-1980s computer magazines; that the later text referred to an ebook edition had me contemplating the possibility of reading it at last. When I started searching for it, though, I turned up not just the second edition cited but a third edition, not that many years old, with the slightly provocative subtitle “The Birth and Death of the Personal Computer.” I went ahead and bought a copy of the ebook.
( A familiar tale? )