The rows over a book about Amazon are turning into an epic in their own right. Amazon’s first employee, Shel Kaphan, has pitched into the argument over whether the book is accurate in its depiction of the online retailer by saying that the new biography of Amazon and founder Jeff Bezos is “at least as accurate as it is possible to be at this great a remove”.
The review left by Kaphan on the book titled The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by author Brad Stone, follows the blasting one-star review left by Jeff Bezos’ wife MacKenzie Bezos.
She was unstinting in her criticism: "Everywhere I can fact check from personal knowledge, I find way too many inaccuracies, and unfortunately that casts doubt over every episode in the book," she wrote.
Stone riposted that "No matter how hard we strive for objectivity, writers are biased toward tension … Like any company, there were countless moments of dull harmony, and who knows how many hours of unremarkable meetings along the way. You could argue that many of those define Bezos and the company more than the strategic risks and moments of friction. MacKenzie Bezos does. I happen to disagree."
‘Mr. Stone’s treatment of that which I know first-hand to be accurate’
After reading Ms Bezos’ review, Kaphan felt compelled to leave a review of his own, he confirmed to AllThingsD.
“I was at Amazon for the first five years of its existence, so I also have first-hand experience of those times at the company, and I have been a fairly close observer since I left,” Kaphan wrote on the Amazon site .
“I spent considerably more time in the Amazon work environment during those years than MacKenzie Bezos did. By and large I found Mr. Stone’s treatment of that which I know firsthand to be accurate – at least as accurate as it is possible to be at this great a remove, and with no contemporaneous documentation of the early chaotic days or access to certain of the principals,” Kaphan said.
‘Breaking news: a new 372 page book has some errors!’
While the facts of the stories seemed to be accurate, Kaphan did note small inaccuracies – including the suggestion that he had a bushy beard at the age of 17.
Kaphan also called out Bezos’ claims of “too many inaccuracies” to be difficult to validate without more evidence, facetiously saying “breaking news: a new 372 page book has some errors!”.
The tit-for-tat reviews are unlikely to hurt sales of Stone’s book. He says he interviewed 300 people for the biography, including current and past executives.
• In October, Amazon released new Kindle Fire HDX Android tablets with crisp new high-resolution screens
