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.
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.
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 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.
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]
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 |
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]
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).
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]
Even after a late release that year, the book became Amazon's #1 seller for 2011. [20]
William "Bill" D. Atkinson is an American computer engineer, computer programmer and photographer. Atkinson worked at Apple Computer from 1978 to 1990. Some of Atkinson's noteworthy contributions to the field of computing include Macintosh QuickDraw and Lisa LisaGraf (Atkinson independently discovered the midpoint circle algorithm for fast drawing of circles by using the sum of consecutive odd numbers), Marching ants, the double-click, Menu bar, the selection lasso, MacPaint (FatBits), HyperCard, Atkinson dithering, and the app PhotoCard.
Lisa is a desktop computer developed by Apple, produced from January 19, 1983 to August 1, 1986, and succeeded by Macintosh. It is generally considered the first mass-market personal computer operable through a graphical user interface (GUI). In 1983, a machine like the Lisa was still so expensive that it was primarily marketed to individual and small and medium-sized businesses as a groundbreaking new alternative to much bigger and more expensive mainframes or minicomputers such as from IBM, that either require additional, expensive consultancy from the supplier, hiring specially trained personnel, or at least, a much steeper learning curve to maintain and operate. Earlier GUI-controlled personal computers were not mass-marketed; for example, Xerox PARC manufactured its Alto workstation only for Xerox and select partners from the early to mid-1970s.
John Sculley III is an American businessman, entrepreneur and investor in high-tech startups. Sculley was vice-president (1970–1977) and president of PepsiCo (1977–1983), until he became chief executive officer (CEO) of Apple Inc. on April 8, 1983, a position he held until leaving on October 15, 1993. In 1987, Sculley was named Silicon Valley's top-paid executive, with an annual salary of US$10.2 million.
Andrew Jay Hertzfeld is an American software engineer who was a member of Apple Computer's original Macintosh development team during the 1980s. After buying an Apple II in January 1978, he went to work for Apple Computer from August 1979 until March 1984, where he was a designer for the Macintosh system software.
Burrell Carver Smith is a retired American computer engineer who created the first wire wrap prototype of the motherboard for the original Macintosh at Apple Computer. He became Apple employee #282 in February 1979 as an Apple II service technician. He designed the motherboard for Apple's LaserWriter.
Michael "Scotty" Scott is an American entrepreneur, who was the first CEO of Apple Computer from February 1977 to March 1981. Formerly director of manufacturing at National Semiconductor, Scott was persuaded by Mike Markkula to take the CEO position at Apple, as the co-founders — Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak — were both seen as insufficiently experienced for the job at the time.
Walter Seff Isaacson is an American journalist who has written biographies of Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Jennifer Doudna and Elon Musk. As of 2024, Isaacson is a professor at Tulane University and, since 2018, an interviewer for the PBS and CNN news show Amanpour & Company.
Apple Inc., originally Apple Computer, Inc., is a multinational corporation that creates and markets consumer electronics and attendant computer software, and is a digital distributor of media content. Apple's core product lines are the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet computer, and the Mac personal computer. The company offers its products online and has a chain of retail stores known as Apple Stores. Founders Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne created Apple Computer Co. on April 1, 1976, to market Wozniak's Apple I desktop computer, and Jobs and Wozniak incorporated the company on January 3, 1977, in Cupertino, California.
Joanna Karine Hoffman is a Polish-American marketing executive. She was one of the original members of both the Apple Macintosh team and the NeXT team.
The Little Kingdom: The Private Story of Apple Computer is the first book that documented the development of Apple Computer. It was published in 1984 and written by then-Time Magazine reporter Michael Moritz. While Steve Jobs initially cooperated with Moritz, he ended communication in the middle of the project and did not authorize the published final version. Moritz reissued an updated version of the book in 2009 as Return to the Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs, the Creation of Apple, and How It Changed the World.
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar. He was a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with his early business partner and fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Lisa Nicole Brennan-Jobs is an American writer. She is the daughter of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt is an American writer and editor. He was Time's first computer writer—producing much of the magazine's early coverage of personal computers and the Internet—and for 12 years its science editor. He is currently writing a daily blog about Apple Inc. called Apple 3.0.
Daniel Kottke is an American businessman known for having been a college friend of Steve Jobs and one of the first employees of Apple Inc. He met Jobs at Reed College in 1972, and they trekked together through India for spiritual enlightenment and to the All One Farm. In 1976, Kottke realized his interest in computers when Jobs hired him to assemble hobbyist computer projects and then to be a part-time employee at the newly founded Apple Computer. There, he debugged the Apple II family, prototyped the Apple III and Macintosh, and endured the IPO where Steve Wozniak assigned Kottke some of his own stock. He was portrayed in several films about Apple.
Norman Seeff is a South African photographer and filmmaker. Since moving to the United States in 1969, his work has been focused on the exploration of human creativity and the inner dynamics of the creative process.
iSteve is a 2013 American biographical parody film released on April 17, 2013 by producer Funny or Die, marking their first full-length movie. It claims to be the first biopic on the life of Steve Jobs after his death. The film stars Justin Long, who had previously starred in Apple's Get a Mac ad campaign, as Jobs and Jorge Garcia as Steve Wozniak. The film was written in three days and shot in five by Ryan Perez, a former Saturday Night Live writer.
Steve Jobs is a 2015 biographical drama film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Aaron Sorkin. A British-American co-production, it was adapted from the 2011 biography by Walter Isaacson and interviews conducted by Sorkin. The film covers fourteen years in the life of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, specifically ahead of three press conferences he gave during that time - the formal unveiling of the Macintosh 128K on January 24, 1984, the unveiling of the NeXT Computer on October 12, 1988, and the unveiling of the iMac G3 on May 6, 1998. Jobs is portrayed by Michael Fassbender, with Kate Winslet as Joanna Hoffman, Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak, and Jeff Daniels as John Sculley in supporting roles.
The Son of a Migrant from Syria is a 2015 mural by graffiti artist Banksy. The mural was located in the Calais jungle, a nickname for the encampment near Calais, France, where migrants lived as they attempted to enter the United Kingdom. The artwork depicts the late Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs—the son of a Syrian migrant to the United States—as a traveling migrant.
Chrisann Brennan is an American memoirist and painter. She is the author of The Bite in the Apple, an autobiography about her relationship with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. They had one child, Lisa Brennan-Jobs.