While there have been several histories of the personal computer, well-known technology writer John Markoff has created the first ever to spotlight the unique political and cultural forces that gave rise to this revolutionary technology. Focusing on the period of 1962 through 1975 in the San Francisco Bay Area, where a heady mix of tech industries, radicalism, and readily available drugs flourished, What the Dormouse Said tells the story of the birth of the personal computer through the people, politics, and protest that defined its unique era.

Based on interviews with all the major surviving players, Markoff vividly captures the lives and times of those who laid the groundwork for the PC revolution, introducing the reader to such colorful characters as Fred Moore, a teenage antiwar protester who went on to ignite the computer industry, and Cap’n Crunch, who wrote the first word processing software for the IBM PC (EZ Writer) in prison, became a millionaire, and ended up homeless. Both immensely informative and entertaining, What the Dormouse Said promises to appeal to all readers of technology, especially the bestselling The Soul of a New Machine.

約翰·馬科夫 （John Markoff），曾為《時代》雜誌撰寫科技文章，後成為《紐約時報》的一位資深撰稿人。著有暢銷書《電腦叛客》、《小心駭客》等。現居住在加利福尼亞州舊金山市。

矽榖的文化觀察傢Paul Saffo這麽形容他：“馬科夫屬於非常特殊的信息專業人(infonaut)。他有學界的好奇心和執著，但更難能可貴的是，他也有與現實非常接軌的一麵，例如他是為《紐約時報》，而不是什麼艱澀的專業雜誌寫文章。馬科夫最重要的地方在於他不隻是報導獨傢消息，而總是報導獨傢幕後的獨傢。他告訴我們早已發生而我們一無所知的事情，接著他又在更大的脈絡底下往下深究一層。”

譯者黃圓圓，東西文庫2014年度優秀譯者獲奬者，英語語言文學碩士，美國研究方嚮，對文化、外交、軍事、政經、大眾科普文章感興趣。

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