West of Eden: The End of Innocence at Apple Computer

This is a well written book that expertly envisions the story of Apple's early years. Rose provides an in-depth look at the people involved and draws out the fascinating stories that surround Apple's early existence. This is by far the most accessible and enjoyable account of Apple's founding. The only problem is that it was written in the early '90's and doesn't reach the amazingly entertaining last few years the company has gone through. If only Rose would write a sequel...

Incredibly fascinating book that takes you on an intense and vivid tour of how Apple was started and what went on behind the scenes. Highly readable and very tough to put down.

West of Eden reads like a novel which makes me wonder if it's all true. After having it gather dust on my shelves for years I finally decided to read it and it's fascinating. I had a hard time tearing myself away in order to get my final progamming assignment done. Whether it's all fact or not one thing's for sure: now that Steve Jobs has been back at Apple for a while I hope Mr. Rose writes a followup!

This is going to be a tough book to get but for anyone wanting to understand Apple Computer, this makes a perfect companion book to Jim Carlton's book, Apple The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders. Frank Rose takes the reader from the startup of Apple to the many misadventures during the Macintosh era of Steve Jobs and John Sculley. Sadly the book ends in 1989 when mismanagement had long since become part of Apple's culture. To understand why bringing back Steve Jobs to save the day at Apple can only cause more misfortune, the reader only needs to turn to page 160 where Rose writes, "Andy was reading a book about Atari that had just come out, and when they were on their way to Florida he passed it on to Woz. As he read it, Woz learned something he didn't like: Years earlier, before they'd started Apple, when he was working at Hewlett-Packard and Jobs had gotten him to design "Breakout" for Atari for a fifty-fifty split, the fee wasn't $700, as Jobs had said, but $5,000." END