“Steve Jobs, in pain and too weak to climb stairs a few weeks before his death, wanted his children to understand why he wasn’t always there for them, according to the author of his highly anticipated biography,” Alistair Barr and Poornima Gupta report for Reuters.
“‘I wanted my kids to know me,’ Jobs was quoted as saying by Pulitzer Prize nominee Walter Isaacson, when he asked the Apple Inc co-founder why he authorized a tell-all biography after living a private, almost ascetic life,” Barr and Gupta report. “‘I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did,’ Jobs told Isaacson in their final interview at Jobs’ home in Palo Alto, California.”
Barr and Gupta report, “Isaacson said he visited Jobs for the last time a few weeks ago and found him curled up in some pain in a downstairs bedroom. Jobs had moved there because he was too weak to go up and down stairs, ‘but his mind was still sharp and his humor vibrant,’ Isaacson wrote in an essay on Time.com that will be published in the magazine’s October 17 edition. Jobs died on Wednesday at the age of 56 after a long battle with a rare form of pancreatic cancer.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: From the author of the bestselling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, this is the exclusive biography of Steve Jobs.
Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.
At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.
Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.
Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.
Pre-order for US$16.99 via Apple’s iBookstore, expected release date Nov. 21, 2011: Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson
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Simon & Schuster ups Steve Jobs biography to October 24th – October 6, 2011
Somewhat similar to Michael Jackson’s wish to show to his children, who became adult enough, his art, the performance (he declined to tour for more than ten years before agreeing, citing fears that touring is very risky for him [adrenaline peaks deprived him of sleep, and so it would require treatment with sedatives]).
This is one book I am going to read from cover to cover the second it’s downloaded to my iPad. Whatever I’m doing, I’m going to stop and read the entire book.
What a total hero. Still in shock. Still numb with grief.
RIP Steve. X
This will give me closure and, I hope, the peace of mind to know he was happy till the end. I need to know when he knew he was going to die soon. An interviw a week before his death talking about industry trends makes me wonder if there was hope he would be okay. This is going to be a painful and therapeutic read! God bless SJ!
The NY Times had five articles related to Steve yesterday (that I was able to count). Today, I counted five more articles about him.
It is quite apparent that many out there were quite aware of the significance of this man in today’s world.
A particularly good example is the following statement:
…”The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.”
(from the official statement by the US President)
This ought to be good. I was amazed how Mr Jobs could refrain from using his fabled curse-laden, razor-sharp vernacular during presentations. Even at the Palo Alto Clown and Fanboy Meet to present the Apple donut campus, he was rather irritated by the panel’s lack of focus.
A man that could get whatever he set his mind to… including his final word? Bought the moment it is published.
I’ll also know him better after I read it. We all will.
Already pre-ordered and awaiting delivery to my iPad.