Tracy Kidder received both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for The Soul of a New Machine. His
other bestselling books include House, Among Schoolchildren, and, most recently, Hometown.
Summary
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of the twentieth century
Computers have changed since 1981, when Tracy Kidder indelibly recorded the drama, comedy, and excitement of one
company's efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market. What has changed little, however, is computer culture:
the feverish pace of the high-tech industry, the mystique of programmers, the go-for-broke approach to business
that has caused so many computer companies to win big (or go belly up), and the cult of pursuing mind-bending technological
innovations. By tracing computer culture to its roots, by exploring the "soul" of the "machine"
that has revolutionized the world, Kidder succeeds as no other writer has done in capturing the essential spirit
of the computer age.
