So one of the things I'd been seeking for a long time were what I called 'Hacker stories that start at the beginning'. That is, ones that start with how this person got interested in the first place. I finally put this desire to bed after reading Lapsley's Exploding the Phone (2013), which was so chock full that this book single handedly satisfied my need for them.
Exploding of course gives much more information on the subject of phreaking to anybody interested.
The author maintains a database of all the source documents he used to write the book on the books website, which is fascinating in and of itself: