Fascinating group lot of items related to the production of the 1987 book So Far: The First Ten Years of a Vision, which was published to commemorate the company’s 10th anniversary. The lot includes a bracket-bound 66-page working typescript of the book, with the front cover marked "X" in red felt tip; a hardcover first edition sealed in its original cellophane wrapper; and a printed copy of a typed letter from Apple production manager Dennis Gobets, dated September 21, 1987, with the memo title “Recap of expenses incurred by publishing the ‘So Far’ book," which begins with a quote from an irate Steve Jobs: “What the fuck happened.”
In his letter, Gobets touches on several aspects of the book’s publication, including its unusual production timeline (“Why did we choose a somewhat different method? Because we had less than 3 months to write, design, print and deliver our book. This is unheard of in the book publishing world”), the standard book production process (“Step 1. Somebody writes a manuscript. Step 2. Somebody else edits it. Step 3. The publisher brings in his legal beagles to make certain his chances of getting sued by the subjects of the book are slim”), and finishing touches (“I started to round up potential publishers who could meet our timeframe and quality standards. The stated timeframe was mid-April to mid-May, after rejecting the idea of delivering for the Shareholders’ Meeting in mid-January”). In overall fine condition.
From the collection of Dennis Gobets.
