Fire in the Valley

Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine — the canonical history of the personal-computer industry. First edition published 1984 (Osborne/McGraw-Hill). Later editions updated through 2000 and 2014.

Canonical Pi coverage

• First Pi notice: 1984-11 — V06 N11 — Robert C. Platt reviews the first edition shortly after publication. Major early notice of what would become the standard history of the PC industry.

The book covers the Homebrew Computer Club, Apple's founding, Wozniak's engineering, Jobs's product vision, the Apple II / Lisa / Mac progression, and Microsoft's parallel rise — Pi's own backstory rendered in narrative form.

Connections

• Companion reading to Pi's own oral history — Bernard Urban and Pi predate the book and were eyewitnesses to some of its events
• Pi members would have recognized many of the figures: Steve Wozniak (attended Pi meeting 1981-06 — V03 N06), John Draper (mentioned in 1980-03 — V02 N03 IAC coverage), Bill Atkinson, etc.