Author Guide · Narrative Nonfiction
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In 1979 Tracy Kidder spent months inside a computer company in Massachusetts, watching a team of young engineers race to build a new machine. The book won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. For the next four decades he chose ordinary subjects and stayed with them for years: a house being built, a fifth-grade classroom, a nursing home, a doctor in Haiti, a homeless-care physician in Boston. Kidder died in March 2026, at the age of eighty. This guide covers all twelve of his books in order, and where to start.
By Lisanne Swart · 12 books · Narrative nonfiction · 1974–2023 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Tracy Kidder published twelve books between 1974 and 2023, almost all of them immersive portraits of people at work: engineers in The Soul of a New Machine (1981), builders in House, a teacher in Among Schoolchildren, the doctor Paul Farmer in Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003) and the physician Jim O'Connell in Rough Sleepers (2023), his last book. He died in March 2026.
Where to Start with Tracy Kidder
If you want the famous one
→ Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003).
If you want the prize-winner
→ The Soul of a New Machine (1981).
If you want his last book
→ Rough Sleepers (2023).
If you want an ordinary life
→ Among Schoolchildren (1989).
All 12 Tracy Kidder Books, in Order
The Road to Yuba City
His first book, about a 1971 murder case in California. Kidder later disowned it and called it a failure from which he learned how not to write.
The Soul of a New Machine
A team of engineers at Data General races to design a new minicomputer, working absurd hours for little reward. The book that made his name, and one of the first great books about the culture of the technology industry.
House
The building of a house in Amherst, Massachusetts, from design to completion, told through the young couple who commissioned it, the architect and the builders.
Among Schoolchildren
A year in the fifth-grade classroom of Chris Zajac, a teacher in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and her twenty pupils.
Old Friends
Life in a nursing home in Massachusetts, centred on the friendship between two elderly roommates.
Home Town
A portrait of Northampton, Massachusetts, through a local police officer and the people of the town.
Mountains Beyond Mountains
Kidder follows the physician and anthropologist Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners In Health, from Haiti to Peru, Russia and Boston, in his campaign to bring first-class medicine to the world's poorest people. It became a favourite of reading programmes in American schools and universities.
My Detachment
His own year as a young army lieutenant in Vietnam, told with unsparing honesty about his vanity and fears.
Strength in What Remains
Deo, a medical student who fled the civil war in Burundi, arrives in New York with almost nothing, rebuilds his life and returns to found a clinic in his home country.
Good Prose
Written with his longtime editor Richard Todd: a book about writing narrative nonfiction, essays and memoir.
A Truck Full of Money
Paul English, a gifted and manic tech entrepreneur who co-founded the travel site Kayak, and what he does with his fortune.
Rough Sleepers
Kidder spent five years following Dr. Jim O'Connell of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program on his rounds among people who sleep on the streets. It was his last book.
How Many Books Did Tracy Kidder Write?
Twelve books between 1974 and 2023, one of them written with Richard Todd.
- People at work — The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, A Truck Full of Money. Read the entries →
- Doctors and healers — Mountains Beyond Mountains, Strength in What Remains, Rough Sleepers. Read the entries →
- Community and memoir — Old Friends, Home Town, My Detachment. Read the entries →
- Writing — Good Prose (2013). Read the entries →
In What Order to Read Tracy Kidder
His books are not a series. Mountains Beyond Mountains, Strength in What Remains and Rough Sleepers form a loose trilogy about people who devote their lives to the sick and the poor.
A reading path
1. Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003)
2. The Soul of a New Machine (1981)
3. Among Schoolchildren (1989)
4. Rough Sleepers (2023)
Quick facts about Tracy Kidder
- Born
- 1945
- Died
- March 24, 2026, New York, aged 80
- Education
- Harvard; Iowa Writers' Workshop
- Military
- Army lieutenant in Vietnam
- Prizes
- Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award (1982); Robert F. Kennedy Book Award
- Lived
- Massachusetts and Maine
- Books
- 12, from 1974 to 2023
How Tracy Kidder Wrote: Immersion and Patience
Kidder chose people rather than issues and stayed with them for a long time, a year in a classroom, five years with a doctor, until he understood their work from the inside.
He kept himself mostly out of his books and wrote in a plain, exact prose, working closely with his editor Richard Todd, with whom he wrote Good Prose.
Tracy Kidder on Strength in What Remains
Listen to the conversation on KPFA →
Tracy Kidder in conversation with Richard Wolinsky about Strength in What Remains, rebroadcast by KPFA in April 2026 after his death.Frequently asked questions about Tracy Kidder's books
How many books did Tracy Kidder write?
Tracy Kidder published twelve books, from The Road to Yuba City (1974) to Rough Sleepers (2023).
Is Tracy Kidder still alive?
No. Tracy Kidder died on March 24, 2026, at the age of eighty. His last book was Rough Sleepers (2023).
What is Mountains Beyond Mountains about?
Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003) follows the doctor Paul Farmer and his work bringing healthcare to the poor in Haiti and elsewhere.
What is The Soul of a New Machine about?
The Soul of a New Machine (1981) follows a team of engineers building a new computer at Data General. It won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
Footnotes
- Tracy Kidder — tracykidder.com
- Bookwaves: Tracy Kidder (1945–2026) — KPFA
- Tracy Kidder (1945–2026) — LibraryThing
Bibliography last verified 1 October 2026.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
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