It is no surprise that Walter Isaacson’s latest book – his biography of Elon Musk – is already a best-seller in its first week of publication.

I caught up with Walter on his book tour recently in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was interviewed by his friend and able interlocutor David Rubenstein.

“Why do you write biography?” Rubenstein queried Walter.

“Well, my favorite teacher when I was an undergrad at Harvard was Doris Kearns Goodwin.  In addition to being a one of the most popular professors at Harvard and an accomplished historian, Doris was – and is – a terrific writer,” Walter recalled. “Back then, Harvard looked down on biography as a subject worthy of academics. So, when Doris submitted her PhD thesis – which became her celebrated biography of Lyndon Johnson – she was denied tenure.  With academics rejecting it, the field of biography was left wide open for serious historians who also wanted to explore great people and their times.  Inspired by Doris and other extraordinary biographers like Robert Caro and David McCollough, I found a calling.”

(Submitted by Tom Herman ’71)