“Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has been the subject of myriad books,” Brian X. Chen and Alexandra Alter report for The New York Times. “But the latest one, Becoming Steve Jobs, released on Tuesday, is the only one with Apple’s stamp of approval.”
“In tweets, Apple has publicly endorsed the book as the most comprehensive biography of Mr. Jobs to date. Apple executives also haven’t been shy about slamming a previous biography, ‘Steve Jobs,’ by Walter Isaacson, which Mr. Jobs directly participated in,” Chen and Alter report. “The new book was written by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, both longtime tech journalists. The biography is viewed through the lens of Mr. Schlender’s personal experience interviewing Mr. Jobs over the last two decades.”
Q: Why did you feel that there was room for another book about him, and how did you aim to distinguish your account from previous ones?
A. RICK: Basically, there was nothing out there that documented how he had changed. I felt that the early stereotype of him as half-genius, half-jerk from birth had stuck around — it was set during his early years at Apple, and it had lasting power mainly because after 1987 he restricted press coverage, because he had sharp elbows.
Q: The book is largely a recounting of Brent’s memories of Steve over the past two and a half decades. What was the most powerful, memorable moment you shared with Steve, and what did it mean to you?
A. BRENT: There was no single most memorable moment in the sense of being an “aha” moment. It was a special experience to take my two daughters over to his house to watch an early cut of “Toy Story,” and it was memorable that he came to visit me twice while I was in the intensive care unit at Stanford Medical Center in 2005. But it was really the cumulative effect of seeing him with some regularity, and not always for the purposes of reporting a story, that made it easier for me to look at him as an endlessly fascinating person. You never knew what he might say.
Much more in the full interview – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: We are going to devour this book!
Related articles:
Apple execs, including Tim Cook, praise new Steve Jobs biography, and criticize an old one – March 23, 2015
Disney CEO Bob Iger kept Steve Jobs’s cancer a secret for three years – March 20, 2015
The evolution of Steve Jobs: It’s time to revisit — and correct — the myth – March 20, 2015
Apple CEO Cook blasts Isaacson’s ‘Steve Jobs’ bio as a ‘just a rehash; a tremendous disservice’ – March 17, 2015
Steve Jobs: ‘I just don’t like television. Apple will never make a TV again’ – March 13, 2015
Tim Cook reportedly offered Steve Jobs his liver, but Jobs refused – March 12, 2015
Gruber: ‘Becoming Steve Jobs’ is a remarkable new book – March 3, 2015
You can say that again – one of a kind.
You can get the unabridged 16hr 21 minute Audible copy of the book free with their 30 day free trial. I’m listening tonic at 1.5 x speed so less than 11 hours listening time. 😃
Wait – speeded up, doesn’t it sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks? did you have gin with that tonic?
No it doesn’t change the pitch. Just same real time pitch faster. 😃 Almost half way through chapter 1. 👀
The best biography of Steve Jobs is Eve’s Hungry, where he is a ninja action hero:
http://eveshungry.blogspot.com