Bill Gates discusses his Albuquerque years in new memoir

FORTHCOMING BOOK BY BILL GATES

Consider including this question in a New Mexico-centric trivia contest: What New Mexico city saw the start of a software company that eventually became an industry giant?

The answer? Albuquerque. The company? Microsoft.

In a memoir set for release Tuesday, Feb. 4, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, discusses his childhood, his family, his first friendships, his dropping out of Harvard — and his company’s early years in the Duke City.

Gates’ book is titled “Source Code/>; My Beginnings.”

Gates and his childhood friend Paul Allen formed Micro-Soft in 1975 in Albuquerque; the hyphen in the name was dropped after several years.

Gates writes that early on Allen turned over to him the job of running Micro-Soft.

Gates and Allen picked Albuquerque as the company’s headquarters to be close to MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), its first business client. MITS was the manufacturer of the Altair 8800 personal computer.

Gates references the places where he dined (mostly Furr’s Cafeteria), the neighborhood for his late-night walks (around Kirtland Air Force Base), and his residence (an apartment on Alvarado SE).

Gates lived in Albuquerque for about four years. He and Allen decided to moved Microsoft’s headquarters to Seattle, where the two men were from. Gates explained why: “With Microsoft no longer dependent on MITS and Paul and I having trouble hiring programmers in Albuquerque, in the spring of 1978, I wrote a memo for our 10 or so employees, listing possible options for Microsoft’s permanent home.”

Seattle won out over Albuquerque, Dallas-Fort Worth and Silicon Valley.

The company moved to the Pacific Northwest in early 1979.

The back cover of an uncorrected bound proof of the book says the memoir “tells this, his own story, for the first time: wise, warm, revealing, it’s a fascinating portrait of an American life.”

In the book’s acknowledgements, Gates writes, “Revisiting the early part of my life and sifting through memories took on a life of its own. To my surprise, the more I dug in, the more I remembered. I’m committed to continuing on this path and plan to write another memoir focused on my years running Microsoft and a third one on this current part of my life and my work with the Gates Foundation.”

AT BOOKS ON THE BOSQUE

Samantha Nagel will discuss the book “Into the Wilderness: Tales of Belonging” at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8, at Books on the Bosque. Nagel edited the book, which is an anthology of writings by New Mexico authors exploring themes of belonging and rewilding.

The bookstore is located at 6261 Riverside Plaza Lane NW.

AT GERONIMO BOOKS

Santa Fe’s Joanne Brown will read from her poetry collection “Independence Day” and talk about her writing with poet-artist Jane Shoenfeld. The event is at 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8, at Geronimo’s Books, 3018 Cielo Court, Suite D, Santa Fe.

Brown said that many of her poems reflect the impact of 1950s McCarthyism on her family and left-leaning friends, many of whom were blacklisted by the government.

The new administration’s focus on loyalty to the president, spreading fear of “the enemy within” and plans for “mass deportations make these poems relatable and relevant today,” Brown notes.