World for Sale at CA Book Fair

Daniel Crouch Rare Books is at the CA book fair this weekend and has brought a most fitting map to his booth: a playful look at the cradle of the technology industry, circa 1983. Titled simply, “Silicon Valley,” the 30” by 39” color printed map offers a chipper bird’seye view of the computer industry as it was thirty-six years ago.

Among the hundreds of firms included on the map are companies like IBM, Toshiba, Apple and Hewlett-Packard vying for space with now-defunct tech players like Four Phase Systems and Wang. Illustrated by children’s book author Maryanne Regal Hoburg (B.B. Bear, Basic Brown Bear), the map demonstrates the robust, almost childlike enthusiasm of the tech ecosystem participants of the early 1980s. Peppered among the computer companies are sentiments like, “Everybody is in the fast lane,” and “Silicon Valley is a highly competitive place.” Near Apple’s headquarters, an archer aiming an arrow at an unwitting participant says, “I’ll shoot the apple right off your head!”

The map isn’t all just tech and computer companies; universities like Stanford and Santa Clara receive their due, and the local Chuck E. Cheese–founded by fellow Silicon Valley scion and Atari creator Nolan Bushnell–is promoted as the best spot for a kid’s birthday. Produced by City Graphics of America, a small graphic design company known for producing fun, comic-style maps, this copy is being offered for $45,000. That’s a lot of bytes.