Close to the Machine

Technophilia and Its Discontents

Ellen Ullman (Author), Jaron Lanier

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Paperback

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English

Pushkin Press Classics
28 August 2025

Autobiography: business & industry; Computer programming & software development

Ellen Ullman's humane, insightful, and beautifully written memoir is a cult classic exploring the ever-complicating intersections between people and technology. Writing from 1990s San Francisco, where she ran a programming business that served everyone from credit card companies to AIDS clinics, she describes the strange ecstasies of programming and the even stranger social dynamics of the emerging California tech world, where she crosses paths with the men and women of the emerging internet: sleeping with them, competing with them, trying to get them to debug her systems and decode her desires.

Equally evocative of the messiness of life and the artful efficiency of code, Close to the Machine is a deeply personal, prescient account of working at the forefront of computing.

By: Ellen Ullman (Author)
Introduction by: Jaron Lanier
Imprint: Pushkin Press Classics
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm,
ISBN: 9781805331957
ISBN 10: 1805331957
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 28 August 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Ellen Ullman's Close to the Machine, a memoir of her time as a software engineer during the early years of the internet revolution, became a cult classic and established her as a writer of considerable talent; with her second book, The Bug, she became an acclaimed novelist; By Blood, her second novel, is also published by Pushkin Press. She lives in San Francisco.

Reviews for Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents

'Astonishing... impossible to put down' - San Francisco Chronicle 'A classic of twentieth-century digital culture literature... Part memoir, part techie mantra, part observation on the ever-changing world of computer science...[Ullman is] a strong woman standing up to, and facing down, 'obsolescence' in two different, particularly unforgiving worlds-modern technology and modern society' - New York Times Book Review 'A remarkable document that is both the best account of the intimate experience of computation by a person and a saved slice of historical memory, of that almost lost moment before everything went digitally nuts' - Jaron Lanier 'By turns hilarious and sobering, this slim gem of a book chronicles the Silicon Valley way of life... full of delicately profound insights into work, money, love, and the search for a life that matters' - Newsweek