Elon Musk

‘One of the greatest biographers in America has written a massive book about the richest man in the world. This fast-paced biography, based on more than a hundred interviews … [is] a head-spinning tale about a vain, brilliant, sometimes cruel figure whose ambitions are actively shaping the future of human life.’ – Ron Charles on CBS Sunday Morning’[The book] has everything you’d expect from a book on Musk – stories of tragedy, triumph, and turmoil … the stories are fascinating and guaranteed to spark a mountain of coverage’ * Inc. magazine *‘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 *

Walter Isaacson is the bestselling author of biographies of Jennifer Doudna, Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein. He is a professor of history at Tulane and was CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair of CNN, and editor of Time. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2023.