A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
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| 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
Front cover
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 " as greased lightning fast as possible for the ." 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 title font is Helvetica.[9]
Back cover
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 " 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.
Title
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
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 |