Fun Stuff | The Art of Electronics 3rd Edition

Prehistory of The Art of Electronics

Posted on Mar 17, 2015 in Fun Stuff

The Art of Electronics started life as a set of notes for an electronics course, Physics 123, taught in the Physics Department at Harvard University since 1974. We chose this course number because we wanted to teach “all of electronics” in one semester — that is, “1-2-3 Electronics”.

We first tried a few textbooks, of the “electronics for scientists” variety, but were unhappy with them all. None seemed to offer the intuitive “back-of-the-envelope” approach to electronic design — that we favor. So we started writing (literally: in pencil, on paper, by hand) a set of “notes”. (click here for a sample page, and here for the 1970’s-era table of contents.) These grew to some 200 pages, and acquired considerable popularity. People wanted copies, even if they weren’t taking the course.

After xeroxing a few hundred copies, we decided that there was a need for a real book, one that explained how real circuit designers design circuits. The scope of The Book (as we called it) grew enormously, with a large-format first edition of some 700 pages, extended to more than 1100 pages, 1000 figures, and 80 tables in the second edition, and to more than 1220 pages, 1500 figures, 50 photographs, 80 tables, and 90 oscilloscope screen-captures in the third edition.

Hoist the Jolly Roger

Posted on Mar 17, 2015 in Fun Stuff

The worldwide Art of Electronics food chain includes various inexpensive editions, printed (with publisher’s permission) locally on gritty brownish-gray “paper.” It also includes an occasional fully ripped-off edition, in apparent violation of copyright etiquette. Check out former President Marcos’ interest in electronics, formalized in a Presidential Decree printed in an old Phillipine edition of the book:

Apparently this sort of activity was OK over there, as long as you didn’t take these books out of the country:

Editorial Hindsight

Posted on Mar 17, 2015 in Fun Stuff

Acquisition editors of major book publishers aren’t exactly famous for taking chances, especially on new authors. We learned this the hard way. Here, for example, is a typical letter we got when we were looking for a publisher for a book that, in retrospect, has made publishing history: