Steve Jobs (book)

2011 authorized biography by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs

Author| Walter Isaacson
Cover artist| Albert Watson
Language| English
Genre| Biography
Publisher| Simon & Schuster (U.S.)

Publication date

| October 24, 2011
Publication place| United States
Media type| E-book, Print (Hardback and Paperback), and Audiobook
Pages| 656 pp.
ISBN| 1-4516-4853-7
OCLC| 713189055

Steve Jobs is the authorized self-titled biography of American business magnate and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. The book was written at the request of Jobs by Walter Isaacson, a former executive at CNN and Time who had previously written best-selling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein.[1][2]

Based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—in addition to interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Isaacson was given "unprecedented" access to Jobs's life.[3] Jobs is said to have encouraged the people interviewed to speak honestly. Although Jobs cooperated with the book, he asked for no control over its content other than the book's cover, and waived the right to read it before it was published.[4] Describing his writing, Isaacson commented that he had striven to take a balanced view of his subject that did not sugarcoat Jobs's flaws.[5]

The book was released on October 24, 2011, by Simon & Schuster in the United States, 19 days after Jobs's death.[6]

A film adaptation written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Danny Boyle, with Michael Fassbender starring in the title role, was released on October 9, 2015.

## Appearance

[edit]

The book's cover photograph is similar to one taken previously by Norman Seeff and featured on Rolling Stone.[7]

### Front cover

[edit]

The front cover uses a photo of Steve Jobs commissioned by Fortune magazine in 2006 for a portfolio of powerful people. The photograph was taken by Albert Watson.

When the photograph was taken, he said he insisted on having a three-hour period to set up his equipment, adding that he wanted to make "[every shoot] as greased lightning fast as possible for the [subject]." When Jobs arrived he didn't immediately look at Watson, but instead at the equipment, focusing on Watson's 4×5 camera before saying, "wow, you're shooting film."[8]

> If you look at that shot, you can see the intensity. It was my intention that by looking at him, that you knew this guy was smart. I heard later that it was his favorite photograph of all time.

> — Albert Watson[8]

Jobs gave Watson an hour—longer than he had given most photographers for a portrait session. Watson reportedly instructed Jobs to make "95 percent, almost 100 percent of eye contact with the camera," and to "think about the next project you have on the table," in addition to thinking about instances when people have challenged him.[8]

The title font is Helvetica.[9]

### Back cover

[edit]

The back cover uses another photographic portrait of Jobs taken in his living room in Woodside, California, in February 1984 by Norman Seeff. In a Behind the Cover article published by Time magazine, Seeff recalls him and Jobs "just sitting" on his living room floor, talking about "creativity and everyday stuff," when Jobs left the room and returned with a Macintosh 128K (the original Macintosh computer). Jobs "[plopped] down" in the lotus position holding the computer in his lap when Seeff took the photograph.[10]

> We did do a few more shots later on, and he even did a few yoga poses—he lifted his leg and put it over his shoulder—and I just thought we were two guys hanging out, chatting away, and enjoying the relationship. It wasn't like there was a conceptualization here—this was completely off the cuff, spontaneity that we never thought would become an iconic image.

> — Norman Seeff[10]

The placeholder cover used for the book uses the working title, iSteve: The Book of Jobs.

### Title

[edit]

The book's working title, iSteve: The Book of Jobs, was chosen by publisher Simon & Schuster's publicity department. Although author Walter Isaacson was "never quite sure about it", his wife and daughter reportedly were. However, they thought it was "too cutesy" and as a result Isaacson persuaded the publisher to change the title to something "simpler and more elegant."[11]

The title Steve Jobs was allegedly chosen to reflect Jobs's "minimalist" style and to emphasize the biography's authenticity, further differentiating it from unauthorized publications, such as iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business by Jeffrey Young.[12]

### Chapters

[edit]

Many of the chapters within the book have sub-headings, which are matched in various audiobook versions resulting in listings showing 150+ chapters when there are only 42 chapters. The audiobook contains a mistake on one chapter title, listing Chapter 41 as "Round Three, A Never-ending Struggle" instead of "Round Three, Twilight Struggle" as published.

Chapter number | Chapter title | Sub-heading number | Sub-heading title | Approx. audiobook mark

|
|
|
|

Introduction | How this book came to be |  |  | 00:00:00
Chapter 1 | Childhood, Abandoned and Chosen | 1.1 | The Adoption | 00:13:02
|  | 1.2 | Silicon Valley | 00:25:21
|  | 1.3 | School | 00:42:39
Chapter 2 | Odd Couple, The Two Steves | 2.1 | Woz | 01:05:56
|  | 2.2 | The Blue Box | 01:21:37
Chapter 3 | The Dropout, Turn On, Tune in... | 3.1 | Chrisann Brennan | 01:30:36
|  | 3.2 | Reed College | 01:35:05
|  | 3.3 | Robert Friedland | 01:46:22
|  | 3.4 | ...Drop Out | 01:54:33
Chapter 4 | Atari and India, Zen and the Art of Game Design | 4.1 | Atari | 01:59:40
|  | 4.2 | India | 02:06:39
|  | 4.3 | The Search | 02:15:38
|  | 4.4 | Breakout | 02:26:07
Chapter 5 | The Apple I, Turn On, Boot Up, Jack In... | 5.1 | Machines of Loving Grace | 02:33:32
|  | 5.2 | The Homebrew Computer Club | 02:42:29
|  | 5.3 | Apple is Born | 02:51:56
|  | 5.4 | Garage Band | 03:04:24
Chapter 6 | The Apple II, Dawn of a New Age | 6.1 | An Integrated Package | 03:13:27
|  | 6.2 | Mike Markkula | 03:23:38
|  | 6.3 | Regis McKenna | 03:34:26
|  | 6.4 | The First Launch Event | 03:38:11
|  | 6.5 | Mike Scott | 03:41:30
Chapter 7 | Chrisann and Lisa, He Who Is Abandoned... |  |  | 03:51:29
Chapter 8 | Xerox and Lisa, Graphical User Interface | 8.1 | A New Baby | 04:06:51
|  | 8.2 | Xerox PARC | 04:13:56
|  | 8.3 | Great Artists Steal | 04:22:35
Chapter 9 | Going Public, A Man of Wealth and Fame | 9.1 | Options | 04:32:45
|  | 9.2 | Baby You're a Rich Man | 04:38:28
Chapter 10 | The Mac is Born, You Say You Want a Revolution | 10.1 | Jef Raskin's Baby | 04:46:11
|  | 10.2 | Texaco Towers | 04:59:56
Chapter 11 | The Reality Distortion Field, Playing by His Own Set of Rules |  |  | 05:06:51
Chapter 12 | The Design, Real Artists Simplify | 12.1 | A Bauhaus Aesthetic | 05:26:42
|  | 12.2 | Like a Porsche | 05:34:31
Chapter 13 | Building The Mac, The Journey Is The Reward | 13.1 | Competition | 05:52:12
|  | 13.2 | End-to-end Control | 05:57:32
|  | 13.3 | Machines of the Year | 06:03:10
|  | 13.4 | Let's Be Pirates! | 06:09:32
Chapter 14 | Enter Sculley, The Pepsi Challenge | 14.1 | The Courtship | 06:26:07
|  | 14.2 | The Honeymoon | 06:42:37
Chapter 15 | The Launch, A Dent in the Universe | 15.1 | Real Artists Ship | 06:52:32
|  | 15.2 | The "1984" Advert | 06:59:25
|  | 15.3 | Publicity Blast | 07:08:24
|  | 15.4 | January 24, 1984 | 07:12:51
Chapter 16 | Gates And Jobs, When Orbits Intersect | 16.1 | The Macintosh Partnership | 07:24:56
|  | 16.2 | The Battle of the GUI | 07:39:51
Chapter 17 | Icarus, What goes up... | 17.1 | Flying High | 07:47:33
|  | 17.2 | Falling | 08:03:16
|  | 17.3 | Thirty Years Old | 08:10:45
|  | 17.4 | Exodus | 08:15:37
|  | 17.5 | Showdown, Spring 1985 | 08:26:04
|  | 17.6 | Plotting a Coup | 08:39:18
|  | 17.7 | Seven Days in May | 08:43:15
|  | 17.8 | Like a Rolling Stone | 08:59:15
Chapter 18 | NeXT, Prometheus Unbound | 18.1 | The Pirates Abandon Ship | 09:08:55
|  | 18.2 | To Be On your Own | 09:27:34
|  | 18.3 | The Computer | 09:42:44
|  | 18.4 | Perot to the Rescue | 09:50:09
|  | 18.5 | Gates and NeXT | 09:55:41
|  | 18.6 | IBM | 10:00:51
|  | 18.7 | The Launch, October 1988 | 10:05:37
Chapter 19 | Pixar, Technology Meets Art | 19.1 | Lucasfilm's Computer Division | 10:18:42
|  | 19.2 | Animation | 10:29:53
|  | 19.3 | Tin Toy | 10:35:56
Chapter 20 | A Regular Guy, Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word | 20.1 | Joan Baez | 10:48:26
|  | 20.2 | Finding Joanne and Mona | 10:55:08
|  | 20.3 | The Lost Father | 11:03:58
|  | 20.4 | Lisa | 11:10:59
|  | 20.5 | The Romantic | 11:18:17
Chapter 21 | Family Man, At Home with the Jobs Clan | 21.1 | Laurene Powell | 11:31:43
|  | 21.2 | The Wedding, March 18, 1991 | 11:43:48
|  | 21.3 | A Family Home | 11:51:16
|  | 21.4 | Lisa Moves In | 12:02:15
|  | 21.5 | Children | 12:13:07
Chapter 22 | Toy Story, Buzz and Woody to the Rescue | 22.1 | Jeffrey Katzenberg | 12:16:46
|  | 22.2 | Cut! | 12:25:23
|  | 22.3 | To Infinity! | 12:32:35
Chapter 23 | The Second Coming, What Rough Beast, Its Hour Come Round at Last... | 23.1 | Things Fall Apart | 12:42:10
|  | 23.2 | Apple Falling | 12:47:19
|  | 23.3 | Slouching toward Cupertino | 12:57:10
Chapter 24 | The Restoration, The Loser Now Will Be Later to Win | 24.1 | Hovering Backstage | 13:14:44
|  | 24.2 | Exit, Pursued by a Bear | 13:37:57
|  | 24.3 | Macworld Boston, August 1997 | 14:01:30
|  | 24.4 | The Microsoft Pact | 14:05:29
Chapter 25 | Think Different, Jobs as iCEO | 25.1 | Here's to the Crazy Ones | 14:16:28
|  | 25.2 | iCEO | 14:30:23
|  | 25.3 | Killing the Clones | 14:36:06
|  | 25.4 | Product Line Review | 14:40:50
Chapter 26 | Design Principles, The Studio of Jobs and Ive | 26.1 | Jony Ive | 14:49:26
|  | 26.2 | Inside the Studio | 15:01:45
Chapter 27 | The iMac, Hello (Again) | 27.1 | Back to the Future | 15:09:53
|  | 27.2 | The Launch, May 6, 1998 | 15:25:06
Chapter 28 | CEO, Still Crazy after All These Years | 28.1 | Tim Cook | 15:34:11
|  | 28.2 | Mock Turtlenecks and Teamwork | 15:42:47
|  | 28.3 | From iCEO to CEO | 15:51:45
Chapter 29 | Apple Stores, Genius Bars and Siena Sandstone | 29.1 | The Customer Experience | 15:59:31
|  | 29.2 | The Prototype | 16:05:49
|  | 29.3 | Wood, Stone, Steel, Glass | 16:15:58
Chapter 30 | The Digital Hub, From iTunes to the iPod | 30.1 | Connecting the Dots | 16:24:58
|  | 30.2 | FireWire | 16:28:45
|  | 30.3 | iTunes | 16:36:07
|  | 30.4 | The iPod | 16:40:49
|  | 30.5 | That's It! | 16:48:37
|  | 30.6 | The Whiteness of the Whale | 16:56:47
Chapter 31 | The iTunes Store, I'm the Pied Piper | 31.1 | Warner Music | 17:06:39
|  | 31.2 | Herding Cats | 17:19:12
|  | 31.3 | Microsoft | 17:32:39
|  | 31.4 | Mr. Tambourine Man | 17:42:46
Chapter 32 | Music Man, The Sound Track of His Life | 32.1 | On His iPod | 17:53:26
|  | 32.2 | Bob Dylan | 18:05:05
|  | 32.3 | The Beatles | 18:13:52
|  | 32.4 | Bono | 18:18:31
|  | 32.5 | Yo-Yo Ma | 18:31:21
Chapter 33 | Pixar's Friends, ...and Foes | 33.1 | A Bug's Life | 18:32:46
|  | 33.2 | Steve's Own Movie | 18:44:06
|  | 33.3 | The Divorce | 18:50:04
Chapter 34 | Twenty-First-Century Macs, Setting Apple Apart | 34.1 | Clams, Ice Cubes, and Sunflowers | 19:20:24
|  | 34.2 | Intel Inside | 19:26:52
|  | 34.3 | Options | 19:31:27
Chapter 35 | Round One, Memento Mori | 35.1 | Cancer | 19:41:35
|  | 35.2 | The Stanford Commencement | 19:52:09
|  | 35.3 | A Lion at Fifty | 19:56:07
Chapter 36 | The iPhone, Three Revolutionary Products in One | 36.1 | An iPod That Makes Calls | 20:16:05
|  | 36.2 | Multi-touch | 20:21:25
|  | 36.3 | Gorilla Glass | 20:30:04
|  | 36.4 | The Design | 20:35:25
|  | 36.5 | The Launch | 20:38:43
Chapter 37 | Round Two, The Cancer Recurs | 37.1 | The Battles of 2008 | 20:43:19
|  | 37.2 | Memphis | 21:01:25
|  | 37.3 | Return | 21:16:02
Chapter 38 | The iPad, Into the Post-PC Era | 38.1 | You Say You Want a Revolution | 21:22:39
|  | 38.2 | The Launch, January 2010 | 21:30:43
|  | 38.3 | Advertising | 21:44:29
|  | 38.4 | Apps | 21:51:15
|  | 38.5 | Publishing and Journalism | 21:58:20
Chapter 39 | New Battles, And Echoes of Old Ones | 39.1 | Google: Open versus Closed | 22:18:13
|  | 39.2 | Flash, the App Store, and Control | 22:27:46
|  | 39.3 | Antennagate: Design versus Engineering | 22:40:33
|  | 39.4 | Here Comes the Sun | 22:54:44
Chapter 40 | To Infinity, The Cloud, the Spaceship, and Beyond | 40.1 | The iPad 2 | 22:57:34
|  | 40.2 | iCloud | 23:12:14
|  | 40.3 | A New Campus | 23:23:32
Chapter 41 | Round Three, The Twilight Struggle | 41.1 | Family Ties | 23:32:37
|  | 41.2 | President Obama | 23:49:08
|  | 41.3 | Third Medical Leave, 2011 | 23:58:04
|  | 41.4 | Visitors | 24:10:16
|  | 41.5 | That Day Has Come | 24:19:43
Chapter 42 | Legacy, The Brightest Heaven of Invention | 42.1 | FireWire | 24:32:27
|  | 42.2 | And One More Thing... | 24:50:55
|  | 42.3 | Coda | 25:01:48

## Reception

[edit]

Janet Maslin's review of the book for The New York Times mixed mild criticisms with praise. Maslin wrote that Isaacson's biography presented "an encyclopedic survey of all that Mr. Jobs accomplished, replete with the passion and excitement that it deserves."[13]

A number of Steve Jobs's family and close colleagues expressed disapproval, including Laurene Powell Jobs, Tim Cook and Jony Ive.[14][5][15] Cook remarked that the biography did Jobs "a tremendous disservice", and that "it didn't capture the person. The person I read about there is somebody I would never have wanted to work with over all this time."[5] Ive said of the book that "my contempt couldn't be lower."[14][5]

Commercially, the biography was a notable success, selling more than three million copies in the United States alone by 2015.[5]

## Film adaptation

[edit]

Main article: Steve Jobs (film)

Steve Jobs is a drama film based on the life of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, starring Michael Fassbender in the title role. The film is directed by Danny Boyle, produced by Scott Rudin, and written by Aaron Sorkin (with a screenplay adapted both from Isaacson's Steve Jobs as well as from interviews conducted by Sorkin).

## Other media

[edit]

Extracts from the biography have been the feature of various magazines, in addition to interviews with the author, Walter Isaacson.[16]

To memorialize Jobs's life after his death on October 5, 2011, TIME published a commemorative issue on October 8, 2011. The issue's cover featured a portrait of Jobs, taken by Norman Seeff, in which he is sitting in the lotus position holding the original Macintosh computer. The portrait was published in Rolling Stone in January 1984 and is featured on the back cover of Steve Jobs. The issue marked the eighth time Jobs has been featured on the cover of Time.[17] 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 the book to him.[18]

Bloomberg Businessweek also released a commemorative issue of its magazine remembering the life of Jobs. The cover of the magazine features Apple-like simplicity, with a black-and-white, up-close photo of Jobs and his years of birth and death. In tribute to Jobs's minimalist style, the issue was published without advertisements. It featured extensive essays by Steve Jurvetson, John Sculley, Sean Wisely, William Gibson, and Walter Isaacson. Similarly to Time's commemorative issue, Isaacson's essay served as a preview of Steve Jobs.

Fortune featured an exclusive extract of the biography on October 24, 2011, focusing on the "friend-enemy" relationship Jobs had with Bill Gates.[19]

## Awards and honors

[edit]

Even after a late release that year, the book became Amazon's #1 seller for 2011.[20]

* 2012 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, shortlist[21]
* 2011 The New York Times bestseller
* 2011 Christian Science Monitor Best Book, nonfiction
* 2011 Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year

## See also

[edit]

* Biography portal
* Books portal
* History portal

* 2011 in literature
* Apple Inc. development history

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Yin, Sara (August 15, 2011). "Tell-All Steve Jobs Biography Hits Stores on November 21". PC Magazine. Retrieved October 6, 2011.
2. ^ Gilbert, Jason (August 25, 2011). "Steve Jobs Biography Gets Cover, November Release Date". The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 6, 2011.
3. ^ Elmer-DeWitt, Philip (August 16, 2011). "A peek at Steve Jobs' book jacket – front, back and spine". Fortune. CNN Money. Archived from the original on October 16, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
4. ^ Olivarez-Giles, Nathan (August 15, 2011). "'Steve Jobs: A Biography' release date is moved up to Nov. 21". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 6, 2011.
5. ^ a b c d e Chen, Brian X.; Alter, Alexandra (March 22, 2015). "Apple Opens Up to Praise New Book on Steve Jobs, and Criticize an Old One". The New York Times. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
6. ^ Ong, Josh (August 15, 2011). "Biography of Apple CEO Steve Jobs to arrive in November". AppleInsider. Retrieved October 6, 2011.
7. ^ "The Steve Jobs Nobody Knew". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. October 12, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
8. ^ a b c Walker, David (October 6, 2011). "Steve Jobs: Visionary, Inventor, and Very Challenging Photo Subject". Photo District News. Nielsen. Retrieved October 3, 2015.
9. ^ Ong, Josh (August 15, 2011). "Biography of Apple CEO Steve Jobs to arrive in November". AppleInsider. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
10. ^ a b Seeff, Norman (October 6, 2011). "Behind the Cover: Steve Jobs". Time. Time. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
11. ^ Elmer-DeWitt, Philip (July 5, 2011). "Steve Jobs' bio gets a new title". Fortune. CNN Money. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
12. ^ Schramm, Mike (July 5, 2011). "Steve Jobs biography gets new title: 'Steve Jobs'". TUAW. AOL.
13. ^ Maslin, Janet (October 21, 2011). "Making the iBio for Apple's Genius". The New York Times. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
14. ^ a b Elmer-DeWitt, Philip (October 11, 2015). "What does Steve Jobs' widow have against 'Steve Jobs'?". Fortune. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
15. ^ Parker, Ian (February 23, 2015). "The Shape of Things to Come". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
16. ^ Weintraub, Seth (October 19, 2011). "Steve Jobs Biographer to be on 60 Minutes Sunday". 9to5Mac. 925. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
17. ^ "TIME's Steve Jobs Covers". TIME. April 2, 2010. Archived from the original on April 4, 2010. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
18. ^ Elmer-DeWitt, Philip (October 6, 2011). "The day Steve Jobs called Walter Isaacson". Fortune. CNN Money. Archived from the original on September 15, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2011.
19. ^ Weintraub, Seth (October 20, 2011). "Fortune will have exclusive excerpt of Steve Jobs bio Monday focusing on relationship with Bill Gates". 9to5Mac. 925. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
20. ^ Marsal, Katie (December 6, 2011). "Steve Jobs biography is Amazon's best selling book of 2011". Apple Insider. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
21. ^ Andrew Hill (September 13, 2012). "Biographies and economics dominate". Financial Times. Retrieved September 15, 2012.

## External links

[edit]

* Presentation by Isaacson on Steve Jobs, December 13, 2011, C-SPAN
* Presentation by Isaacson on Steve Jobs, September 22, 2012, C-SPAN
* Steve Jobs Biography - Net Worth, Family, Age (1995-2011) (archived) – An article by "brightbrainiac"

* v
* t
* e

Walter Isaacson

Books|

* The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (with Evan Thomas)
* Kissinger: A Biography
* Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
* Einstein: His Life and Universe
* American Sketches
* Steve Jobs (film adaptation)
* The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
* Leonardo da Vinci
* The Code Breaker
* Elon Musk

Other|

* Aspen Institute

* v
* t
* e

Steve Jobs

Career|

* Timeline
* Apple Computer
* history
* Macintosh
* NeXT
* Pixar
* Return to Apple
* "Thoughts on Flash"

Legacy|

* Depictions
* Honors and public recognition

Books about|

* The Little Kingdom (1984)
* The Second Coming of Steve Jobs (2000)
* iCon (2005)
* Steve Jobs (2011)
* The Bite in the Apple (2013)
* Becoming Steve Jobs (2015)
* Designed by Apple in California (2016)
* Small Fry (2018)
* Make Something Wonderful (2023)

Films about|

* Triumph of the Nerds (1996)
* Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)
* Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview (2012)
* ISteve (2013)
* Jobs (2013)
* Steve Jobs (2015)
* Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (2015)

Family|

* Laurene Powell Jobs (wife)
* Mona Simpson (sister)
* Chrisann Brennan (mother of his first child)
* Lisa Brennan-Jobs (daughter)
* Eve Jobs (daughter)
* Reed Jobs (son)

Related|

* Stevenote
* Reality distortion field
* Jackling House
* The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs
* Seva Foundation
* The Son of a Migrant from Syria (2015 mural)
* Venus yacht
* 1984 commercial
* Think different
* Steve Wozniak

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