I was saddened to hear today about the death of Tracy Kidder, who succumbed to lung cancer at 80. My entry to his work was the unexpectedly thrilling The Soul of a New Machine(1981), which captured the frenzy of the early days of computer technology, a frenzy that has only accelerated exponentially ever since. Journalists of the day found Kidder’s immersive narratives to be the gold standard of long-form nonfiction, perhaps second only to the likes of John McPhee. I was fairly certain I’d written about him during my days as a book review editor, and, indeed, I found my raw notes file from a phone interview I did with him in 1989. The interview piece ran a few days later alongside my review of Among Schoolchldren from The Kansas City Star, September 3, 1989.