Wired: A Romance

by Gary Wolf

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test for our own age, the story of a dreamer who turned American media upside down—and suffered the consequences


Louis Rossetto had no money, no home, no job. Five years later he owned the hottest magazine in America and was poised to become an international tycoon, with America’s most powerful financiers by his side.

Rossetto was the founder and editor of Wired, whose hyperactive Day-Glo pages proclaimed that every American institution was obsolete. Instantly, Wired, was everywhere—on television, passed around the halls of Congress, displayed in the office of the president of the United States. Wired,’s headquarters in San Francisco became a pilgrimage site for everybody who wanted to be at the white-hot center of the digital revolution. Not since the early days of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone had anybody so brilliantly channeled the enthusiasms of his era.

But this was only the beginning. Wired cast an uncanny spell, creating a feedback loop that grew stunningly out of control. Wired,’s online site, HotWired, designed and sold the first banner advertisements for the World Wide Web, unleashing a commercial frenzy. Wired, reached for empire, with a book-publishing company, a broadcast division, and foreign editions all over the globe. But as the market’s enthusiasm outstripped the limits of reason, Rossetto faced a battle over the fate of Wired that would prove the ultimate test of his radical ideas.

Gary Wolf, one of Wired,’s most popular writers, takes no prisoners in this insider’s account, telling a story that is alternately thrilling, hilarious, heartbreaking, and absurd. Now that bumper stickers read-ing please god–just one more bubble have been sighted on the highways of California, Wired—A Romance goes beyond the dot.com clichés and paints a deeply affecting portrait of the boom.


From the Hardcover edition.

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

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Reviews

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

From my vantage point as an editorial producer at Conde Nast WIRED, it was fun to read about the magazine's madcap early days. Who knew that WIRED started a search engine called HotBot? Not me!

[Hank Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wired... I can still remember the very first edition of that magazine I saw and how exciting it was to read when it first came out... being a forever 'McLuhanite the very beginning of the book is a great early summary coming from the very words of Wired's original prophet: If you have difficulty envisioning something as trivial as the imminent end of elections, you'll be totally unprepared to cope with the prospect of the forthcoming demise of spoken language and it's replacement by a global commitment. It's the story about the era of the beginnings of digital culture and how we have landed in today... it's about how this one publication did so much to define and interpret the digital culture of today.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having worked at Wired for many years on the front lines, this book gave me many insights into what was happening behind closed doors at the executive management level. I found it to be an intriguing book if only for selfish reasons.

[Scot · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of the man who founded Wired, his vision of the future, and how he lost control of the business he created and got rich and miserable in the process. Also provides some interesting behind-the-scenes look of the early days of the web.