To some degree, Levy's "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" (1984) covers this, but probably not to the detail you want. He has a whole chapter on Stallman and the AI Lab. Of course a problem was that in 1984 the modern importance of free software wasn't really apparent. Stallman looks principled in the book but sort of a fool because it looked like the people who went to industry would become rich and Stallman's "GNU" project looked like the impractical utopian dreams of an aging hippie, not the source of software used in millions of computers (and other devices not even thought of yet) in the future.
> Of course a problem was that in 1984 the modern importance of free software wasn't really apparent.
Perhaps it wasn't apparent widely, but it was certainly clear to MSFT and IBM. IBM lawyers at the time refused to allow RMS to come speak at the Watson lab where I worked, because of his ideas about free software.
