Plenty has been written about Steve Jobs, from biographies to made-for-TV movies. But authors seeking to get the real story on Steve have mostly had to do so without cooperation from the man himself. The reclusive inventor and entrepreneur, arguably responsible for more revolutions in personal electronics and media than anyone in recent history, has a reputation for fierce privacy and has consistently refused to authorize any official account of his life story. Until now.
The Associated Press has reported that Simon & Schuster will publish iSteve: The Book of Jobs in early 2012. Penned by Walter Isaacson -- a veteran journalist and former top executive at both TIME magazine and CNN who has previously written biographies of Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin -- the biography will be the first created with the full cooperation of Jobs, and is based on interviews with Jobs himself, his family, close colleagues at Apple, his competitors and more.
"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," said Jonathan Karp, publisher of Simon & Schuster, in a statement. "Just as he did with Einstein and Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson is telling a unique story of revolutionary genius."
Isaacson has been working on the long rumored Book of Jobs since 2009. The Apple chief may have been spurred to open up for posterity by recent bouts with his own mortality. Jobs has survived a curable form of pancreatic cancer and a liver transplant. In January, he took an indefinite medical leave from his duties at Apple that remains in effect.
[AP]
