Agent Palmer

Sinatra: The Chairman by James Kaplan is the second of two books Kaplan wrote on the man, the myth, and the legend; the one and only Frank Sinatra. But I did not actually know this was the second of two books until I read about the first one (Sinatra: The Voice) in the acknowledgements.

Now, it did answer my one question as to why this book starts with the resurrection of his career in the mid-1950’s instead of at the beginning of his life. But as much as I can (at times) be a completionist, the book I read was the one of the two that I was more interested in.

Before I get into this book and it’s subject (Claude Shannon), I must borrow from the authors in their acknowledgements, because they have succinctly described the reason that I picked up this book and others, like Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Where Wizards Stay Up Late, even Masters of Doom, countless others on tech innovators like Bill Gates, The Steves (Jobs and Wozniak); and will continue to do so.

“…it is not the Internet that is unnatural, nor our feast of information, but a refusal to consider what their origins are…”