Overview

#1 New York Times non-fiction bestseller #2 Sunday Times non-fiction bestseller SHORTLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY APPLE, AMAZON, THE TIMES AND FINANCIAL TIMES Epic feats. Epic failures. An epic story. Walter Isaacson charts Elon Musk’s journey from humble beginnings to one of the wealthiest people on the planet – but is Musk a genius or a jerk?   From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of Elon Musk, the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era – a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter. When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue and charismatic fantasist. His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive. At the beginning of 2022 – after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth – Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. ‘I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,’ he said. It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground. For two years, Walter Isaacson had unprecedented access. He shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress? The book includes over 100 integrated black and white images.

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9781398527492

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Reviews

‘Its portrait of the tech maverick is fascinating. . . Isaacson’s account of rolling crises over rocket engines and car designs are vivid and pacy, and his analysis of his subject’s personality is a persuasive mixture of alarm and deep admiration * Daily Telegraph * ‘An exploration of the tech billionaire’s epic feats. . . [Isaacson] has done something amazing with the Musk biography which is to write a 688-page quick read’ * Financial Times * ‘It is undoubtedly [Isaacson’s] most intimate [book] of the lot. . . Whatever you think of Mr Musk, he is a man worth understanding – which makes this a book worth reading’ * The Economist * ‘A penetrating new biography’  * Daily Mail * ‘With Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson offers both an engaging chronicle of his subject’s busy life so far and some compelling answers’ * Wall Street Journal * ‘For two years, Isaacson shadowed the Tesla and SpaceX founder’s day-to-day life. He spent hours interviewing Musk, as well as his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries, in hopes of understanding how the South African boy who was bullied by his classmates became one of the world’s greatest tech disruptors. . . [The book] promises to be the most complete profile of Musk yet’ * Time Magazine * ‘Isaacson takes on subjects with enormous ambitions and egos to match (Steve Jobs, Henry Kissinger, Leonardo da Vinci) . . . There’s not much middle ground on Musk – people love him or hate him – but Isaacson is best positioned to figure out what makes him tick’ * Los Angeles Times * ‘The best-selling author of Steve Jobs returns with a biography of the richest man on earth. Isaacson spent two years shadowing Musk, the head of X (formerly Twitter), Tesla and SpaceX, and interviewing both his friends and foes. The resulting book delves deep into the billionaire’s demons, including childhood bullies and a difficult father, and interrogates their relationship to his success’ * New York Times *

‘Its portrait of the tech maverick is fascinating. . . a persuasive mixture of alarm and deep admiration' * Daily Telegraph * ‘[Isaacson] has done something amazing with the Musk biography which is to write a 688-page quick read’ * Financial Times * ‘Whatever you think of Mr Musk, he is a man worth understanding – which makes this a book worth reading’ * The Economist * ‘A penetrating new biography’  * Daily Mail * ‘A beat-by-beat book that follows the tycoon inside important rooms, as well as exploring obscure regions of his mind’ * The Times * ‘A comprehensive, deeply reported chronicle of the world-shaping tech mogul’s life’ * Politico * ‘An experienced biographer’s comprehensive study’ * Observer * ‘He forms his own conclusions, which are mostly admirably balanced and mature. . . Isaacson, in his quest for a comprehensive audit of the Musk phenomenon, errs slightly on the side of the voyeur in these encounters, but I can’t blame him. It’s quite the spectacle’ * Independent * ‘The book contains a series of illuminating anecdotes about Musk’ * Guardian * 'Isaacson offers both an engaging chronicle of his subject’s busy life so far and some compelling answers’ * Wall Street Journal * ‘The most complete profile of Musk yet’ * Time Magazine * 'There’s not much middle ground on Musk – people love him or hate him – but Isaacson is best positioned to figure out what makes him tick’ * Los Angeles Times * ‘The resulting book delves deep into the billionaire’s demons, including childhood bullies and a difficult father, and interrogates their relationship to his success’ * New York Times * ‘Isaacson deftly handles complicated matters like the development of electric vehicles, rockets and artificial intelligence while also deeply exploring Musk’s background and family’ * AP News * ‘This fast-paced biography. . . [is] a head-spinning tale about a vain, brilliant, sometimes cruel figure whose ambitions are actively shaping the future of human life' -- Ron Charles * CBS Sunday Morning * ‘Everything you'd expect from a book on Musk. . . While the stories are fascinating and guaranteed to spark a mountain of coverage, founders and entrepreneurs will also unearth valuable lessons’ * Inc. * ‘The book is bursting with stories. . . A deeply engrossing tale of a spectacular American innovator’ * New York Journal of Books *

Author Information

Walter Isaacson, University Professor of History at Tulane, has been CEO of the Aspen Institute, chairman of CNN, and editor of Time magazine. He is the author of Leonardo da Vinci; The Innovators; Steve Jobs; Einstein: His Life and Universe; Benjamin Franklin: An American Life; and Kissinger: A Biography, and the co-author of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. He and his wife live in New Orleans. Facebook: Walter Isaacson, Twitter: @WalterIsaacson

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