Editing Steven Levy

{{short description|American journalist (born 1951)}}
{{Other people}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Steven Levy
| image            = File:Steven Levy Author.JPG
| alt              = Steven Levy signing copies of his book, "In The Plex" at Next Labs in Palo Alto, California, February 2014
| caption          = Author Steven Levy at a book signing at [[Nest Labs]] in Palo Alto, February 2014
| birth_date       = {{Birth-date and age |1951}}
| birth_place      = [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[United States]]
| death_place      = 
| resting_place    = 
| occupation       = Author, columnist
| alma_mater       = [[Temple University]] ([[Bachelor's degree|BA]]) <br>
[[Pennsylvania State University]] ([[Master's degree|MA]])
| genre            = non-fiction (science-technology, business)
| notableworks     = {{Plainlist|
*[[Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution|Hackers]]
*[[Crypto (book)|Crypto]]
*[[The Perfect Thing]]
*[[In the Plex]]
}}
| spouse           = [[Teresa Carpenter]]
| children         = 1 son
| website          = {{URL|stevenlevy.com}}
}}
'''Steven Levy''' (born 1951) is an American journalist and editor at large for ''[[Wired magazine|Wired]]'' who has written extensively for publications on computers, technology, cryptography, the internet, [[cybersecurity]], and [[privacy]]. He is the author of the 1984 book ''[[Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution]]'', which chronicles the early days of the computer underground. Levy published eight books covering [[computer hacker]] culture, [[artificial intelligence]], [[cryptography]], and multi-year exposés of [[Apple Inc.|Apple]], [[Google]], and [[Facebook]]. His most recent book, ''Facebook: The Inside Story'', recounts the history and rise of Facebook from three years of interviews with employees, including [[Chamath Palihapitiya]], [[Sheryl Sandberg]], and [[Mark Zuckerberg]].<ref>

{{cite book
|title=Facebook: The Inside Story
|first=Steven
|last=Levy
|year=2020
|publisher=Penguin
|isbn=9780735213159
}}

</ref>

== Early life and education ==
Levy was born in [[Philadelphia]] in 1951. He graduated from [[Central High School (Philadelphia)|Central High School]] and received a [[bachelor's degree]] in English<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Ubiquity: An Interview with Newsweek's Steven Levy |url=https://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=1315448 |access-date=2024-05-01 |website=ubiquity.acm.org}}</ref> from [[Temple University]]. He earned a master's degree in literature from [[Pennsylvania State University]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=About Steven Levy |url=http://www.stevenlevy.com/index.php/about |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070322100522/http://www.stevenlevy.com/index.php/about/ |archive-date=March 22, 2007 |access-date=May 1, 2024 |publisher=Stevenlevy.com}}</ref> 

== Career ==
In the mid-1970s, Levy worked as a freelance journalist and frequently contributed to ''[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]'''s ''Today'' magazine.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1976-05-09 |title=Honky-tonk Odyssey |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-honky-tonk-ody/146422006/ |access-date=2024-05-01 |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |pages=320}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1977-07-17 |title=South Jersey's Oasis of Soul |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-south-jerseys/146422286/ |access-date=2024-05-01 |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |pages=292}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1976-05-30 |title=The Poet of Pop |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-the-poet-of-po/146422323/ |access-date=2024-05-01 |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |pages=305}}</ref> In 1976, he was a founding co-editor of the ''Free Times'', a weekly guide to happenings in Philadelphia. He became as senior editor of ''[[New Jersey Monthly]]'', and rediscovered [[Albert Einstein's brain]] floating in a mason jar in the [[Wichita, Kansas|Wichita]] office of pathologist [[Thomas Stoltz Harvey]] while reporting a story in 1978.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.stevenlevy.com/index.php/einsteins-brain
|title=Einstein's Brain
|work=About Steven
|access-date=2021-06-20
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070813054803/http://www.stevenlevy.com/index.php/einsteins-brain/
|archivedate=2007-08-13
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1978-07-27 |title=Parts of Dr. Einstein's Brain Located, Still Being Studied |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-herald-parts-of-dr-einsteins/146421450/ |access-date=2024-05-01 |work=The Daily Herald |pages=14}}</ref>

In the 1980s, Levy's work became more focused on technology. In 1981, ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' assigned him an article on computer hackers,<ref>{{Cite web |title=HIPPIE VERSUS NERD |url=https://www.bookforum.com/print/1304/hippie-versus-nerd-501 |access-date=2024-05-01 |website=www.bookforum.com |language=en-US}}</ref> which he expanded into a book ''[[Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution]],'' published in 1984. He described the "[[hacker ethic]]", the belief that all information should be free and that it ought to change life for the better.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Steven Levy|title=Hackers|page=ix}}</ref> Levy was a contributor to [[Stewart Brand]]'s ''[[Whole Earth Software Catalog]]'', first published in 1984. He was a contributing editor to ''[[Popular Computing]]'' and wrote a monthly column in the magazine, initially called "Telecomputing"<ref>{{cite journal |title=Telecomputing |last=Levy |first=Steven |page=68 |volume=2 |issue=6 |date=April 1983 |journal=[[Popular Computing]] |publisher=[[McGraw-Hill, Inc.]]}}</ref> and later named "Micro Journal"<ref>{{cite journal |title=Micro Journal |last=Levy |first=Steven |page=70 |volume=3 |issue=6 |date=April 1984 |journal=[[Popular Computing]] |publisher=[[McGraw-Hill, Inc.]]}}</ref> and "Computer Journal",<ref>{{cite journal |title=Computer Journal |last=Levy |first=Steven |page=38 |volume=4 |issue=7 |date=May 1985 |journal=[[Popular Computing]] |publisher=[[McGraw-Hill, Inc.]]}}</ref> from April 1983 to the magazine's closure in December 1985.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Computer Journal |last=Levy |first=Steven |page=32 |volume=5 |issue=2 |date=December 1985 |journal=[[Popular Computing]] |publisher=[[McGraw-Hill, Inc.]]}}</ref> In December 1986, Levy founded the ''[[Macworld]]'' Game Hall of Fame,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Levy |first=Steven |date=December 1986 |title=The Game Hall of Fame |journal=[[Macworld]] |publisher=PCW Communications, Inc |volume=3 |page=119 |number=12}}</ref> which ''Macworld'' published annually until 2009.<ref>{{cite web |last=Cohen |first=Peter |date=2009-12-29 |title=Macworld's 2009 Game Hall of Fame |url=https://www.macworld.com/article/201801/ghof_2009.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414121208/https://www.macworld.com/article/201801/ghof_2009.html |archive-date=2021-04-14 |work=[[Macworld]] |publisher=IDG Communications, Inc.}}</ref> Levy stepped away from the technology beat in his second book, on the murderous past of hippie and [[Earth Day]] co-founder [[Ira Einhorn]], published in 1988 and adapted into an [[The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer|NBC TV miniseries]] with [[Naomi Watts]] in 1999.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1988-10-14 |title=The Unicorn's Secret: Murder in the Age of Aquarius |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-monitor-the-unicorns-secret-murder/146429158/ |access-date=2024-05-01 |work=The Monitor |pages=32}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1988-11-06 |title=The Einhorn Revelations |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-the-einhorn-re/146429387/ |access-date=2024-05-01 |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |pages=564}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> Levy's 1992 book about AI called ''Artificial Life'' was a finalist for the [[Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=1992-06-14 |title=The computer critters |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-the-computer-critters/146425348/ |access-date=2024-05-01 |work=Chicago Tribune |pages=316}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |date= March 25, 2020|title=1992 Los Angeles Times Book Prize - Science & Technology Winner and Nominees |url=https://www.awardsarchive.com/1992-los-angeles-times-book-prize-science-and-technology-winner-and-nominees/ |access-date=2024-05-01 |website=Awards Archive |language=en-US}}</ref> In 1994, he published the book ''Insanely Great'' about the [[Mac (computer)|Mac]] computer.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1994-01-28 |title=Computer's history makes for a lively tale of a mouse |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-computers-history-make/146426964/ |access-date=2024-05-01 |work=The Boston Globe |pages=46}}</ref> 

Levy joined ''[[Newsweek]]'' in 1995 as a technology writer and senior editor.<ref name=":0" /> In July 2004, Levy published a cover story for ''Newsweek'' (which also featured an interview with [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] CEO [[Steve Jobs]]) which unveiled the 4th generation of the [[iPod]] to the world before Apple had officially done so.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Levy |first=Steven |date=24 July 2004 |title=iPod Nation |journal=[[Newsweek]] |publisher=Newsweek, Inc. |volume=CXLIV |pages=42–50 |number=4}}</ref> He continued his coverage of the iPod into a book called ''[[The Perfect Thing]]'' published in 2006.<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness by Steven Levy |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780743285223 |access-date=2024-05-01 |website=www.publishersweekly.com}}</ref>

In 2014, he co-created the tech blog [[Backchannel (blog)|Backchannel]], which was integrated into [[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] in 2017.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Speaker Details: LiveWIRED |url=https://events.wired.com/livewired/speaker/984302/steven-levy |access-date=2024-05-01 |website=events.wired.com |language=en-AG}}</ref> Since 2008, Levy has worked as a writer and editor at large for ''[[Wired magazine|Wired]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Steven Levy |url=https://www.wired.com/author/steven-levy/}}</ref> At various points throughout his career, Levy has written freelance pieces for publications including ''[[Harper's]],'' ''[[The New York Times|The New York Times Magazine]]'', ''[[The New Yorker]]'', and ''[[Premiere (magazine)|Premiere]].''

== Personal life ==
He lives in New York City with his wife [[Teresa Carpenter]], a Pulitzer Prize-winning true crime and history writer.<ref name=":1" /> They have a son.<ref name=":0" />

==Bibliography==
[[File:Adam D'Angelo and Steven Levy in 2011.jpg|thumb|Steven Levy and [[Adam D'Angelo]] (left)]]

===Books===
* ''[[Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution]]'' (1984)
* ''The Unicorn's Secret: Murder in the Age of Aquarius'' (1988)
* ''Artificial Life: The Quest for a New Creation'' (1992)
* ''Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything'' (1994)
* ''[[Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government Saving Privacy in the Digital Age]]'' (2001)
* ''[[The Perfect Thing|The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness]]'' (2006)
* ''[[In the Plex|In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives]]'' (2011)
* ''Facebook: The Inside Story'' (2020)

===Essays and reporting===
{{Incomplete list|date=June 2016}}
* {{cite magazine |author=Levy, Steven |date=November 1982 <!-- seems to be ~October/November, from the "There's More To Life Than Pac-Man" and "Getting Hooked" articles -->|orig-date= Fall/Winter 1982 |title= Me and My Computer |magazine=[[Playboy]] Guide: Electronic Entertainment |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=38–41, 84 }}
* {{cite magazine |author=Levy, Steven |date=December 2013 |title=Like minds |magazine=Wired |volume=21 |issue=12 |pages=234–244 |url=https://www.wired.com/2013/11/bill-gates-bill-clinton-wired/ <!--access-date=2016-06-24-->}}<ref>''Wired'' often changes the title of a print article when it is published online. This article is titled "Bill Gates and President Bill Clinton on the NSA, Safe Sex, and American Exceptionalism" online.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Steven Levy}}
* [http://www.stevenlevy.com/ Steven Levy's website]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=374| name=Steven Levy}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Steven Levy |sopt=t}}
* {{YouTube|L2Sdn4u9TVk|Authors@Google: Steven Levy}}
* [http://lebowskipodcast.com/index.php/Episodes/Episode-27-Steven-Levys-Wish-List.html Lebowski Podcast Episode 27 – Steven Levy's Wish List] Interview with Steven Levy about The Big Lebowski and his interview with the Coen Brothers.
* [http://lebowskipodcast.com/index.php/Episodes/Episode-27a-Steven-Levy-on-Technology.html Lebowski Podcast Episode 27a – Steven Levy on Technology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201041412/http://lebowskipodcast.com/index.php/Episodes/Episode-27a-Steven-Levy-on-Technology.html |date=December 1, 2017 }} Chalupa and Steven Levy talk about blogging, Twitter, internet security, etc.
* {{C-SPAN|52915}}
** [http://www.c-span.org/video/?195695-1/qa-steven-levy C-SPAN ''Q&A'' interview with Levy on ''The Perfect Thing'', December 24, 2006]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Steven}}
[[Category:1951 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Jewish American journalists]]
[[Category:American male journalists]]
[[Category:American bloggers]]
[[Category:American technology writers]]
[[Category:American science journalists]]
[[Category:Pennsylvania State University alumni]]
[[Category:Newsweek people]]
[[Category:Wired (magazine) people]]
[[Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:American male bloggers]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]