Trying to ID a Book about Apple History

May 13, 2019 4:00 PM

Hi all, I'm looking for a copy of a book I used to own and lost. It was a book about The Macintosh and Apple as a company. I remember it had a section about sneaking into MacWorld. It was printed in a kind of two-tone orange and purple style and had a soft cover.

I can't for the life of me remember the title or author, and I'd love to get myself a new copy. I used to love flipping through this book.

posted by signsofrain to Technology (10 answers total)

Is there any chance this book was about the Newton? It sounds an awful lot like Defying Gravity.

https://www.amazon.com/Defying-Gravity-Making-Markos-Kounalakis/dp/0941831949
posted by pipian at 4:40 PM on May 13, 2019

Went looking as it’s likely something i’ve seen before; don’t think this is what you are talking about but was surprised to find Zen and the Art of Macintosh (which is an interesting cultural artifact of its moment) available in full on archive.org.
posted by D.C. at 4:43 PM on May 13, 2019

"Infinite Loop" by Michael Malone? "Insanely Great" by Steven Levy? "Revolution in the Valley" by Andy Hertzfeld?
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:53 PM on May 13, 2019

Sounds a little like Revolution in the Valley. All those stories are on folklore.org, maybe you can find it there.
posted by thejoshu at 5:27 PM on May 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

Apple Confidential by Owen W. Linzmayer?
posted by ejbenjamin at 7:21 PM on May 13, 2019

Response by poster: So far none of them. The closest is that "Defying Gravity" pipian posted. That's the closest to how the book actually looks.

Also many of the stories in the book *are* available on Folklore.org as thejoshu mentioned. When I found that site (years after I'd lost the book) I was happy to re-read some of those stories again.

Hopefully someone remembers this book... I've got a feeling I had some kind of rarity and when I find out what it is I'm gonna be disappointed at how hard it will be to re-acquire.
posted by signsofrain at 8:23 PM on May 13, 2019

Could it be The Apple Macintosh Book?
posted by elphaba at 7:13 AM on May 14, 2019

Response by poster: Elphaba: I think this might be it potentially? The few images I can find on Google of the inside of the book vaguely jog my memory but I can't say for certain. So far it's the only thing that's been posted that looks familiar!
posted by signsofrain at 4:27 PM on May 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The Apple Macintosh Book is available in its entirety on archive.org and it seems more like a manual than what you're looking for.

I looked through my own collection of old Mac books and discovered Guide to The Macintosh Underground: Mac Culture from the Inside from 1993 is softcover and printed in two-tone orange and purple, and there is a full scan available at VintageApple.org.
posted by hgws at 10:13 PM on May 14, 2019

Response by poster: hgws THANK YOU!!!!!
posted by signsofrain at 8:59 PM on May 31, 2019