“Three weeks after the mercurial Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died, in October 2011, Walter Isaacson published an authorized biography that many then considered to be the definitive account of the billionaire’s life,” Laura M. Holson reports for The New York Times. “Four years later, though, the fascination with Mr. Jobs persists.”
“This year alone, about a dozen books will be published about him, and two movies will be released: Alex Gibney’s critical documentary, ‘Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine,’ which premiered at the South by Southwest festival in March, and Danny Boyle’s ‘Steve Jobs,’ starring Michael Fassbender, which will be released in October,” Holson reports. “(Not to be confused with the 2013 film ‘Jobs,’ which starred the younger-Jobs look-alike Ashton Kutcher.)”
“The movies come in the same year as the recently released biography ‘Becoming Steve Jobs,’ written by Rick Tetzeli and Brent Schlender, former Fortune staff members and the only book to be endorsed by Apple executives so far,” Holson reports. “This year’s crop of books and movies feeds the insatiable appetite of Apple fans that has spurred a cottage industry in all things Steve Jobs.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Gee, one of the most fascinating people ever spawns much fascination. Who’da thunk it?
If by “many” Ms. Holson means five or six, most of whom are members of Mr. Isaacson’s family, then yes, his biography of Steve Jobs was indeed definitive, to them. I won’t rehash the laments about the rushed, incomplete, unreadable rough draft that it was.
And a scattering of other books and movies released or in production does not, in my opinion, a cottage industry make. There were just as many books and movies released before the tragic demise of Jobs. I find those to be just as, if not more, useful in uncovering the character and history of not just Jobs and Apple, but all the other characters and companies who were all part of the alchemy that produced the company now known simply as Apple Inc.
Once again, a slow day in the newsroom creates specious headlines.
dmz
The “title”, at least, is correct, it does not say anything about this industry being post mortem.
Who else has so many books written about him?
Don’t forget Eve’s Hungry, where Steve Jobs is a futuristic ninja action hero.
Meanwhile, Ballmer’s life has created a cottage cheese industry….