ELON MUSK

Entrepreneur, inventor and philantropist: Elon Musk is the last, biggest dreamer out there, and Ashlee Vance is the writer who will deliver the definitive portrait of Musk in action.

Elon Musk is the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, with the success of PayPal under his belt, other projects on the horizon, and a fame stoked by forces including Hollywood connections and addresses delivered by Musk at every conference and conclave that makes news. Musk wants to save our planet; he wants to send citizens into space, to form a colony on Mars; he wants to make money while doing these things; and he wants us all to know about it.

Ashlee Vance is a star, too. After spending several years reporting on Silicon Valley and technology for the New York Times, Ashlee made the move to Bloomberg Businessweek where he has consistently delivered groundbreaking cover stories for the magazine on everything from international cyber-spying to 3D printers to “the Singularity,” i.e. “the Nerd Apocalypse. (When Facebook broke the billion-user mark, it was Ashlee who scooped that news, and Ashlee who had the exclusive interview with Mark Zuckerberg, in time to run on that week’s cover.) A running theme of Ashlee’s life and reporting from Palo Alto has been the search for those who are still thinking and developing technologies – and hardware – in the boldest ways possible. We were supposed to have flying cars by now, remember? And instead we have smartphones, social media, and banner ads.

Elon Musk is the Steve Jobs of the present and the future, and it is Ashlee who is closest to him and has the access and reportorial chops to deliver a stunning, important, exciting, intelligent and popular narrative in the tradition of Michael Lewis.