Steve Jobs (book)
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| Author | Walter Isaacson |
|---|---|
| Original title | iSteve: The Book of Jobs |
| Cover artist | Albert Watson |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Biography |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
Publication date | October 24, 2011 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | E-book and Print (Hardback and Paperback) |
| Pages | 656 pp |
| ISBN | 1451648537 |
Steve Jobs is the authorized biography of Steve Jobs. The biography is written by Walter Isaacson, a former executive at CNN and Time who has written best-selling biographies about Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein.
History
Announcement
Publisher Simon & Schuster announced on April 10, 2011 that Walter Isaacson, a former executive at CNN and Time who has written best-selling biographies about Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, will write an authorized biography on Steve Jobs, described by the publisher as providing an “unprecedented look at the life of Apple’s CEO and co-founder.”
The book was originally titled iSteve: The Book of Jobs, but was changed to the “simpler and more elegant” title after Isaacson’s wife and daughter told him it was “too cutesy.”[1]
Time memorial
To commemorate Steve Jobs life after his death on October 5, 2011, Time published a special memorial edition for Steve Jobs on October 8, 2011, marking the seventh time Jobs has appeared on the cover of Time. The issue included a photographic essay by Diana Walker, a retrospective on Apple by Harry McCracken and Lev Grossman, and a six-page essay by Walter Isaacson. Isaacson’s essay served as a preview of Steve Jobs, and described Jobs pitching of the book to him.[2]
As I watched him battle that disease, with an awesome intensity combined with an astonishing emotional romanticism, I came to find him deeply compelling, and I realized how much his personality was ingrained in the products he created. His passions, demons, desires, artistry, devilry and obsession for control were integrally connected to his approach to business, so I decided to try to write his tale as a case study in creativity.
Isaacson described how in Summer 2004, he received a phone call from Jobs asking him if he would “take a walk” so they could talk. Isaacson had recently published a biography of Benjamin Franklin and was writing another about Albert Einstein. It was then that Jobs asked Isaacson to write a biography of him. Isaacson’s initial reaction was to wonder whether “[Jobs] saw himself as the natural successor [to Franklin and Einstein].”
Isaacson assumed that Jobs was in the middle of his career and therefore “demurred”. Instead, Isaacson suggested that he would write a biography of Jobs when he retires in “a decade or two.” Isaacson later realized that Jobs had contacted him just before he was going to receive his first operation to treat his pancreatic cancer.
Isaacson began work on the book in 2009.[3]
This is the perfect match of subject and author, and it is certain to be a landmark book about one of the world’s greatest innovators … Just as he did with Einstein and Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson is telling a unique story of revolutionary genius.
—Jonathan Karp, publisher at Simon & Schuster[4]
Cover
The front cover features the Albert Watson portrait of Steve Jobs taken for Fortune in 2009. The back cover is the Norman Seeff portrait of Jobs in the lotus position holding the original Macintosh computer, which was published in Rolling Stone in January 1984. The title font is Helvetica.[5]
Adaptations
Film
Proposals for the book to be adapted into a feature-length biographical film where announced a few days after Steve Jobs death. Sony Pictures acquired the rights to book from author Walter Isaacson for a seven-figure sum. The film will be titled Steve Jobs and will be produced by Mark Gordon.[6]
Although it will be the first feature-length film to document the life of Jobs, previous films have been produced. In 1999, a television film Pirates of Silicon Valley was released.
References
- ^ Ong, Josh (July 5, 2011). "Authorized Steve Jobs biography gets 'more elegant' title". AppleInsider. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
- ^ a b Elmer-DeWitt, Philip (October 6, 2011). "The day Steve Jobs called Walter Isaacson". Fortune. CNN Money. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
- ^ Ong, Josh (April 11, 2011). "Authorized Steve Jobs biography to arrive in early 2012". AppleInsider. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
- ^ Italie, Hillel (April 11, 2011). "Steve Jobs Authorized Biography Coming in 2012". Associated Press. ABC News. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
- ^ Ong, Josh (August 15, 2011). "Biography of Apple CEO Steve Jobs to arrive in November". AppleInsider. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
- ^ Child, Ben (October 10, 2011). "Steve Jobs the movie: Sony buys rights". The Guardian. Retrieved October 16, 2011.