Claude Shannon nació el 30 de abril de 1916 en Michigan, Estados Unidos. Estuvo casado con Mary Elizabeth Moore y Norma Barzman. Murió el 24 de febrero de 2001 en Massachusetts, Estados Unidos.
A Mind at Play, a biography of Shannon written by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman, was published in 2017. They described Shannon as "the most important genius you've never heard of, a man whose intellect was on par with Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton".
