Elon Musk: Tesla, Spacex, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Publisher Marketing: In the spirit of "Steve Jobs" and "Moneyball," " Elon Musk" is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley s most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs a real-life Tony Stark and a fascinating exploration of the renewal of American invention and its new makers. In "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future," veteran technology journalist Ashlee Vance provides the first inside look into the extraordinary life and times of Silicon Valley s most audacious entrepreneur. Written with exclusive access to Musk, his family and friends, the book traces the entrepreneur s journey from a rough upbringing in South Africa to the pinnacle of the global business world. Vance spent over forty hours in conversation with Musk and interviewed close to three hundred people to tell the tumultuous stories of Musk s world-changing companies PayPal, Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and SolarCity and to characterize a man who has renewed American industry and sparked new levels of innovation while making plenty of enemies along the way. Vance uses Musk s story to explore one of the pressing questions of our time: can the nation of inventors and creators that led the modern world for a century still compete in an age of fierce global competition? He argues that Musk one of the most unusual and striking figures in American business history is a contemporary amalgam of legendary inventors and industrialists like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs. More than any other entrepreneur today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune to inventing a future that is as rich and far-reaching as the visionaries of the golden age of science fiction. Thorough and insightful, "Elon Musk" brings to life a technology industry that is rapidly and dramatically changing by examining the life of one of its most powerful and influential titans." Review Citations: Booklist 05/01/2015 pg. 64 (EAN 9780062301260, Other) Publishers Weekly 03/30/2015 (EAN 9780062301239, Hardcover) Kirkus Reviews 04/01/2015 (EAN 9780062301239, Hardcover) Library Journal 04/15/2015 pg. 114 (EAN 9780062301239, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Booklist 05/01/2015 pg. 64 (EAN 9780062301239, Hardcover) New York Times Book Review 05/17/2015 pg. 8 (EAN 9780062301239, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Vance, Ashlee Ashlee Vance is one of the most prominent writers on technology today. After spending several years reporting on Silicon Valley and technology for the New York Times, Vance went to Bloomberg Businessweek, where he has written dozens of cover and feature stories for the magazine on topics ranging from cyber espionage to DNA sequencing and space exploration.