# Walter Isaacson, non-fiction author **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [January 1, 2024, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-isaacson-non-fiction-author/995449 "2024-01-01T17:09:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-isaacson-non-fiction-author/995449/1 "2024-01-01T17:09:42Z")
What’s your opinion of author Walter Isaacson? I’ve got both his Steve Jobs and Elon Musk books on hold at the library, but it’s gonna be a long wait, especially for the Musk work. I come into this a hater of Elon and neutral to positive for Steve Jobs. I notice he’s also written about Einstein and Leonardo, I’d be interested in exploring those if I like what I read. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-isaacson-non-fiction-author/995449/2 "2024-01-02T03:03:08Z")
Isaacson is one of my favorite authors. (I read a lot, mostly non-fiction.) I love the Einstein book. He confirms one of my favorite stories (from Bennett Cerf), that Albert (in Princeton) was visited daily by a grade-school girl, whose bemused parents were told what they talked about: _“She brings me cookies, and I do her arithmetic homework.”_ The real story is even better: he doesn’t do the work but teaches her how to do it. I also love the Steve Jobs book. It reminded me of how people once thought computers could only be operated by “brainiacs”. But Jobs eventually convinced the world that high-tech devices could become consumer electronics. That is genius, when people don’t remember what it was like before you. (Unlike Einstein, Jobs was an asshole). Enjoy! ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-isaacson-non-fiction-author/995449/3 "2024-01-02T03:43:05Z")
My lovely wife is sitting beside me reading his Einstein at this very instant, and quite enjoying it. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-isaacson-non-fiction-author/995449/4 "2024-01-02T09:30:33Z")
I really liked his biographies of Einstein and Steve Jobs. I also thought his book on CRISPR and Jennifer Doudna (_The Code Breaker_) was excellent, as was his book on IT (_The Innovators_). But despite my admiration of him as a writer, I can’t bring myself to read his new biography of Elon Mask, I hate that guy so much for what he did to Twitter. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-isaacson-non-fiction-author/995449/5 "2024-01-02T10:39:48Z")
Isaacson is a great biographer and is (or maybe I should say “was”) one of my favourite non-fiction authors. I’ve read the Steve Jobs bio (the one I think I enjoyed the most) _The Innovators_, and a few others. As for the Elon Musk bio, it’s been sitting on my Kindle for months and I can’t seem to get around to it, in large part because of the impression that Isaacson became a Musk fanboy. Isaacson’s reversal of his published account of Musk turning off Starlink access during Ukraine’s attack on Crimea was absolutely shameful, and in my opinion greatly undermined his credibility as an impartial biographer. FTR, my #1 top non-fiction writer is Erik Larson. _The Devil in the White City_ is probably his most intricate and accomplished work, but I also loved _In the Garden of Beasts_, _Isaac’s Storm_, _Dead Wake_, and _Thunderstruck_. > [@Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter - now the Pit edition](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition/963442/6610): > > More on the Starlink Ukraine controversy: ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-isaacson-non-fiction-author/995449/6 "2024-01-02T15:20:03Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > As for the Elon Musk bio, it’s been sitting on my Kindle for months and I can’t seem to get around to it, in large part because of the impression that Isaacson became a Musk fanboy. Isaacson convinced me that Musk is far more consequential than Jobs, bringing us electric cars much sooner (not that I can put a number of years on that “much”). However, engineering graduates, with other options, would have to be insane or masochistic to take a job working for a Musk company after reading the book. I wonder if Isaacson has caused major hiring problems at Tesla and SpaceX. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-isaacson-non-fiction-author/995449/7 "2024-01-02T19:26:47Z")
I’ve only read his Einstein book, which I liked because I’m always interested in Einstein and also because he mentions me in one of the footnotes (with an error). ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-isaacson-non-fiction-author/995449/8 "2024-01-03T14:17:42Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > he mentions me in one of the footnotes (with an error). “There is no such thing as bad publicity.” 😀