“Learn, Earn & Return: My Life as a Computer Pioneer” has begun to get some interesting press over the last month. You can take a look at the latest articles on the Locust Press site and are some highlights below. Of interest are the comments that the articles are getting from former DEC employees and other industry leaders who share an interest in high tech history. Take a look at the comments from Scott Kirsner’s Globe article if you have a moment.
Boston Globe – “A personal take on the rise and fall of Digital” – Scott Kirsner writes about the split with Digital co-founder, Ken Olsen, as “a bit of history I’d never really understood. MIT professor Jay Forrester was on DEC’s board, and was perennially concerned that DEC was growing too fast. Anderson tended to agree. He met privately with Forrester and shared information with him that Olsen had tried to withhold. “That was the end for me. [Olsen] viewed it as disloyalty, and he didn’t want any criticism from anybody.” Anderson was pushed out of Digital in 1966 and Forrester left the board that same year.
Network World – “DEC co-founder writes memoir, traces company’s rise and fall” – Jim Duffy’s article covers the humble beginnings on an Illinois farm up through first interactions with computers at the University of Illinois; large-scale projects at MIT’s Lincoln Lab;, and then founding, growing and watching, from afar, the ultimate demise of DEC. The article includes an excerpt from “Learn, Earn & Return.”
Creative Capital Blog – “New Memoir from Computer Visionary and DEC Cofounder Harlan Anderson” – Spencer Ante, Business Week Editor and author of Creative Captial: Georges Doriot and the Birth of Venture Capital, writes “When Digital first took money from American Research & Development (ARD), Anderson writes that ARD invested $70,000 for seventy percent of the company.”
Boston Globe Innovation Economy Blog – “Remembering DEC: Memoir from Co-Founder Harlan Anderson Due Out in November“ - Scott Kirsner writes about the co-founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, the first-ever science advisor for Time Inc.; a board member of Boston-based publisher International Data Group, and contributions to the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Stay tuned for more press as the book tour continues!
