This is Bill Gates’ copy of “Introduction to Programming,” a 1969 manual for Digital Equipment Corp.’s PDP-8 mini-computer that Gates had in high school.
Using an IBM Selectric typewriter with a rotating typeball that produced italic lettering Gates typed the following on the inside cover “Bill Gates owns this book. He wants it. Give it back to him! He will tell you.”
Well, Gates finally got it back. 35 years after fellow high school classmate Rami Grunbaum “packed the manual away with other books after graduating in 1974, a year after Gates,” it was returned to him by Seattle Times technology reporter Ben Romano during an interview this month.
It might not be worth as much as the $30 million Leonardo Da Vinci manuscript Gates acquired in 1994 but you would be hard pressed to find a better association copy.
Rami Grunbaum’s piece in the Seattle Times.
Photo taken by Courtney Blethen / Seattle Times