I've just read John Markov's What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry which begins with Doug Englebart getting into place at SRI, looks-in on the creation of Stanford AI Lab and Xerox PARC, and ends after the first few meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club. Some people I know (Dennis and Jim, for instance) figure prominently in the book. I always knew they were famous, I just didn't know what for.
Buy the book for the titilating details -- sex and drugs, yes, but also how much the first Alto cost.