Books by Frank Rose

The Sea We Swim In

How Stories Work in a Data-Driven World

“Terrifically readable, as compelling as the many successful stories and stories of success it tells.

Brian Boyd, author of “On the Origin of Stories” and emeritus professor of English at the University of Auckland

BUILDING ON INSIGHTS from cognitive psychology and neuroscience, ‘The Sea We Swim In’ shows us how to see the world in narrative terms, not as a thesis to be argued or a pitch to be made but as a story to be told. This is the essence of narrative thinking. More about this book…

The Art of Immersion

How the Digital Generation Is Changing Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories

A highly readable, deeply engaging account of shifts in the entertainment industry which have paved the way for more expansive, immersive, interactive forms of fun . . . accessible and urgent.

Henry Jenkins, author of “Convergence Culture”

NOT LONG AGO WE WERE passive consumers of mass media. Now we approach television, movies, even advertising as invitations to participate. We are witnessing the emergence of a new form of narrative that is native to the In­ternet. More about this book…

The Agency

William Morris and The Hidden History of Show Business

This juicy narrative reveals the shark tank at its most lethal and hilarious. The anecdotes come at us at assault-rifle speed, but it’s Rose’s deft use of show-biz vernacular that keeps the pages turning.”

San Francisco Chronicle

FOR DECADES, the Morris agency made deals that determined the fate of stars, studios, and television networks alike. But everything changed after the agency’s president dismissed his own best friend, the man who’d brought Barry Diller and Michael Ovitz out of the mailroom. A multi-generational saga of loyalty and betrayal in Hollywood. More about this book…

West of Eden

The End of Innocence at Apple Computer

“Readers don’t need to worry that Mr. Rose was chewed up by Apple’s public relations machine. . . . He provides convincing proof that life at young California companies was anything but laid back.

Michael Moritz, The Wall Street Journal

IT SEEMS UNTHINKABLE TODAY—but nearly 40 years ago, when personal com­puters were still new and the World Wide Web had yet to be invented, Steve Jobs was cast out of Apple. And it wasn’t just Wall Street that applauded—it was most of Silicon Valley. More about this book…

Into the Heart of the Mind

An American Quest For Artificial Intelligence

Into the Heart of the Mind

“A science book that reads like a novel . . . fast-paced and fact-filled. “

— Booklist

IN A CRAMPED LABORATORY tucked away in the Berkeley engineering school, a small team of scientists is trying to teach a minicomputer named Kim No-VAX to think—not just to shuffle data but to learn, reason, remember, understand English, and exhibit what we call “common sense.”

Real Men

Sex and Style In An Uncertain Age

Real Men

“What Rose has drawn out are the candid — sometimes even intemperate — self-revelations of seven men living in what he calls ‘an uncertain age.’ All seven . . . admit to being confused about themselves, unsure of what comes next. Their willingness to share these doubts . . . is what makes these men more real than their predecessors.”

— The Washington Post

THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT BEING MALE. About power and discipline, sex and violence, and the roles they play in the lives of American men today. Think of it as a personal and idiosyncratic survey designed to produce not statistical data but individual answers to the question of what it means to be a man.