乔布斯新传问世 苹果高管忙叫好

Steve Jobs prized secrecy from his executives and employees during his tenure at Apple. Now his top lieutenants are speaking out — to help shape the legacy of Steve Jobs.

史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)珍视在苹果任职期间雇员和高管们对他隐私的保护。不过现在，为了塑造乔布斯的后世形象，他的副手们为他发声了。

Through interviews and tweets, Apple brass, including the chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, are throwing their weight behind a new unauthorized biography of the Apple co-founder, “Becoming Steve Jobs,” which goes on sale on Tuesday. In the book, executives take aim at another title, “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, an authorized biography published shortly after Mr. Jobs’s death in 2011.

包括首席执行官蒂姆·库克(Timothy D. Cook)在内的苹果高层，通过采访和推特推文表达了对苹果联合创始人的新传记的支持，这本名为《成为史蒂夫·乔布斯》(Becomin Steve Jobs)的书非乔布斯本人授权，于上周二上市。在这本书中，苹果高管们把批评的矛头指向了另一本乔布斯传记——《史蒂夫·乔布斯》(Steve Jobs)，这部书经乔布斯本人授权，作者是沃尔特·艾萨克森(Walter Isaacson)，于2011年乔布斯去世不久后出版。

Mr. Isaacson’s best seller did a “tremendous disservice” to the Apple chief, Mr. Cook said in the new book, written by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, and excerpted in the April issue of Fast Company. “It didn’t capture the person,” Mr. Cook said. “The person I read about there is somebody I would never have wanted to work with over all this time.”

库克在布伦特·施兰德(Brent Schlende)和里克·特泽尔(Rick Tetzeli)所著的这本新传记中说，艾萨克森的这本畅销书给苹果的领袖乔布斯带来“巨大的损害”。《快公司》(Fast Company)杂志的四月刊摘录了库克的这段言论­。“这本书没有准确地表现出乔布斯本人，”库克说，“我读到的是一个我永远也不想与之共处的人。”

Jony Ive, Apple’s longtime design chief, added his criticism of Mr. Isaacson’s biography last month in a New Yorker profile. “My regard couldn’t be any lower” for the book, he said, noting that he had read only parts of it.

长期担任苹果首席设计师的乔纳森·伊夫(Jony Ive)在《纽约客》(New Yorker)二月的人物特写文章中也对艾萨克森的传记进行了指责。“我觉得那本书不能再差了”，他表示自己仅仅阅读了书中的一部分。

Eddy Cue, Apple’s chief of software and Internet services, endorsed the new book on Mr. Jobs on Twitter last week: “Best portrayal is about to be released — Becoming Steve Jobs (book). Well done and first to get it right.” Apple’s iBooks account also tweeted last week that “ ‘Becoming Steve Jobs’ is the only book about Steve recommended by the people who knew him best.”

苹果互联网软件与服务负责人艾迪·库伊(Eddy Cue)上上周发表推文称赞新传：“写乔布斯写得最好的书就要发行了——《成为史蒂夫·乔布斯》。真不错，终于写对一回。”苹果的iBooks账号上周也发推特说，“《成为史蒂夫·乔布斯》是唯一一部真正了解乔布斯的人做出推荐的书。”

The book-on-book criticism is a rare public cavalcade from Apple executives, who under Mr. Jobs kept quiet about the company’s activities. It shows the lengths that Apple is going in its effort to reshape the posthumous image of Mr. Jobs as a kinder spirit, rather than a one-dimensional mercurial and brash chief. To that end, Apple gave the authors of “Becoming Steve Jobs” interviews with four executives, including Mr. Cook. In another sign of the company’s implicit approval of the biography, the writers will discuss the book and field questions about it on Thursday at the Apple store in SoHo.

苹果高管们轮番对旧传记进行公开批评，实属少见。此前，在乔布斯手下工作时，他们对公司活动向来保持沉默。由此可见，苹果公司正在努力重塑乔布斯的后世形象：乔布斯是一个和蔼可亲的领袖，而不是一个有着反复无常、盛气凌人单薄形象的人。为了实现这一点，苹果公司为新传记作者提供了采访四位苹果执行官的机会，其中包括库克。周四，新传记的两位作者将在苏豪区(SoHo)的苹果商店内展开新书讨论会，回答有关问题，可谓是苹果公司对传记认可的又一标志。

Apple’s cooperation wasn’t easily won, Mr. Schlender and Mr. Tetzeli said in an email interview. When the veteran tech journalists first approached the company about the book in 2012, both were told executives would not give any interviews. Apple changed its mind 18 months later, they said.

在邮件采访中，施兰德和特泽尔表示，赢得苹果的配合并非易事。这两位资深的科技记者介绍道，2012年，他们就传记事宜首次接触苹果，但公司告诉他们，高层们不会接受采访。18个月后，苹果改变了主意。

“I think our patience and quiet perseverance was what eventually won them over,” said Mr. Schlender, who covered Mr. Jobs for almost 25 years. He said he wanted to write the book because he felt there was a side of Mr. Jobs’s personality that had never been captured by journalists. While the authors fact-checked portions of the book with Apple and other sources and showed the finished volume to the company, Apple wasn’t allowed to have “any editorial input whatsoever,” Mr. Tetzeli said.

“我觉得是我们的耐心和默默的坚持最后打动了他们，”施兰德说。施兰德报道乔布斯将近25年。他说之所以想写这本书，是认为乔布斯性格中有从未被记者捕捉到的一面。特泽尔也介绍道，虽然他们曾将书中的部分内容与苹果公司和其他消息源进行核查，并把最终版本展示给苹果公司，但没有允许苹果公司“干预内容”。

“After a long period of reflection following Steve’s death, we felt a sense of responsibility to say more about the Steve we knew,” Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, said. “We decided to participate in Brent and Rick’s book because of Brent’s long relationship with Steve, which gave him a unique perspective on Steve’s life. The book captures Steve better than anything else we’ve seen, and we are happy we decided to participate.”

“史蒂夫去世后，我们思考了很长时间，觉得有责任把我们所知道的乔布斯更多地展现出来，”苹果发言人史蒂夫·道林(Steve Dowling)说，“里克与乔布斯长期保持往来，在观察乔布斯的一生上拥有独特的视角。因此，我们决定让苹果公司参与到布伦特和里克的书中。这本书对乔布斯的捕捉比我们看到的任何书都要出色，我们为当初的决定感到高兴。”

A handful of influential tech bloggers received early copies of the book, including John Gruber, who wrote on his website Daring Fireball that the book was “smart, accurate, informative, insightful and at times, utterly heartbreaking.”

一些有影响力的科技博客作家提前收到了样书。约翰·格鲁伯就是其中之一。格鲁伯在博客Daring Fireball上评价该书“充满智慧，信息准确而充实，有见解，但有时也令人无比心痛。”

Philip Elmer-DeWitt, a Fortune writer, said in a blog post that Mr. Schlender’s long relationship with Mr. Jobs helped distinguish the new book from past titles about the Apple chief.

《财富》(Fortune)撰稿人菲利普·埃尔默-德威特(Philip Elmer-DeWit)在博客中说，施兰德和乔布斯的长期往来使得这本新书从其他描写乔布斯的书中脱颖而出。

“It’s through Schlender’s stories, freshly told, often from taped interviews, that we get to know Steve Jobs as Schlender knew him,” Mr. Elmer-DeWitt wrote.

“施兰德展现出的故事大部分来源于对乔布斯的采访录音，这让我们可以像施兰德本人一样去了解乔布斯。”埃尔默-德威特写道。

In an interview, Mr. Isaacson, chief executive of the Aspen Institute and a former managing editor of Time, said he had tried to take a balanced view of Mr. Jobs that did not sugarcoat the Apple co-founder’s flaws. He interviewed Mr. Jobs more than 40 times and spoke to more than 100 of his friends, relatives, rivals and colleagues, including Mr. Cook, Mr. Ive and Mr. Cue.

在一次采访中，艾萨克森说，他尝试对乔布斯采取不偏不倚的态度，不为这位苹果创始人的缺点制作糖衣。艾萨克森是阿斯彭研究所(Aspen Institute)的首席执行官，也是《时代》的前执行主编。他采访过乔布斯本人超过40次，与乔布斯100多个亲朋好友、对手或同事交谈，这当中也包括库克、艾维和库伊。

In the introduction to “Steve Jobs,” Mr. Isaacson wrote that Mr. Jobs, who had handpicked him as biographer, didn’t try to exert any control over the book, except for weighing in on the cover. The biography proved enormously popular, selling more than three million copies in the United States alone.

艾萨克森在《史蒂夫·乔布斯》的序言中写道，乔布斯让他来为自己做传记，除了封面以外，没有对书施加任何控制。这本传记问世后大为流行，单在美国就卖出300多万册。

“My book is very favorable and honest, with no anonymous slings,” Mr. Isaacson said, adding that he was criticized at times for being too soft on his subject.

艾萨克森说，“我的书非常友好，而且真实，没有匿名的攻击。”他还补充说，自己多次因对描述对象太客气了而遭到批评。

Mr. Isaacson said he was pleased to see more biographies and movies — a documentary on Mr. Jobs recently debuted at the South by Southwest festival, and a biopic featuring the actor Michael Fassbender as Mr. Jobs was also in the works — that would help the public’s understanding of Apple’s former leader. “It’s really cool that there are other books coming out by people who knew Steve and where those who really loved him can put forth their views, because that’s how history is made,” he said.

艾萨克森说，他很高兴看到更多的传记和电影问世，比如关于乔布斯的纪录片最近在西南偏南电影节(Southwest)上首映，还有由迈克尔·法斯本德(Michael Fassbender)饰演乔布斯的传记电影。这些有利于观众理解乔布斯。他说，“其他了解史蒂夫的人也来写书，这真的挺好的，那些真正爱他的人在书中可以展示他们的视角，这就是历史被书写的方式。”

Apple’s active participation in “Becoming Steve Jobs” is also another sign of how Mr. Cook has shaped the company into one that is more open and vocal. Over the last six months, Apple executives have been on an extensive media campaign to promote new retail stores, the Apple Watch and Apple Pay, a new mobile payment service.

苹果公司对《成为史蒂夫·乔布斯》的积极响应说明，库克正在让苹果变得更加开放和勇于表达。过去六个月，苹果的高管频频现身于媒体活动，推广新的零售店、Apple Watch和Apple Pay（一种崭新的移动支付服务）。

Mr. Cook has not been shy about defending Apple’s image, either. When the author Yukari I. Kane published “Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs” last year, Mr. Cook publicly dismissed the book as “nonsense.” Ms. Kane said the colorful remarks from Apple executives about Mr. Isaacson’s book reflect a looser discipline at the company.

在维护苹果形象方面，库克也并不羞涩。去年，尤加利·I·凯恩(Yukari I. Kane)写了本《困境中的帝国：后乔布斯时代的苹果》(Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs)。库克公开指责其一派胡言。凯恩认为苹果高管关于艾萨克森所著传记五花八门的评论，反映出该公司的纪律变得更为宽松。

“Jobs was a mastermind at controlling the narrative on Apple, and one of the ways he did that was to make sure that he was the sole spokesperson and that officially, at least, the company stayed above all the fracas,” Ms. Kane said. She added that Mr. Cook’s critical comment ended up being used for the cover of her book by overseas publishers.

“乔布斯是决定苹果叙述的主脑，他的方法之一就是让自己成为苹果唯一的发言人，而且至少在公开场合，公司腾架在所有纷争之上，”凯恩说。她又补充，库克的批评最后被她的海外出版人用在了图书封面上。

“Becoming Steve Jobs” paints him as a caring mentor, as well as a delegator and skillful manager who brought the best out of his team. In the Fast Company excerpt, Mr. Cook told a story of what happened after he learned that Mr. Jobs needed a liver transplant in 2009. When Mr. Cook discovered that he and Mr. Jobs shared the same rare blood type, Mr. Cook offered a part of his liver to his ailing friend.

《成为史蒂夫·乔布斯》将乔布斯描绘为善解人意的导师，是员工意愿的表达者和技巧丰富的管理者，能够挖掘出团队的最佳水平。在《快公司》的摘录中，库克讲述了2009年得知乔布斯需要肝移植后发生的故事。库克发现自己和乔布斯的稀有血型一致，提出为病痛的好友捐出部分肝脏。

“I really wanted him to do it,” he said in the book. “He cut me off at the legs, almost before the words were out of my mouth. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’ll never let you do that. I’ll never do that!’ ”

“我真的希望他能听我的，”库克在书中说，“话没说完他就把我堵回去了，‘不，’他说，‘我不会让你这么做的。永远不会！’”

“Somebody that’s selfish,” Mr. Cook continued, “doesn’t reply like that.”

“他若是自私的人，”库克继续说，“是不会这么回答的。”

Later in the excerpt, Mr. Cue of Apple noted that in Mr. Jobs’s final years, the Apple chief did everything he could to have people treat him as if he were not sick. “You could see it in the meetings; he was taking morphine, and you could see he was in pain, but he was still interested,” Mr. Cue said.

在这段摘录的后面，库伊说，在乔布斯在去世前的最后几年，想尽办法不要让大家把他当成病人。“你可以在会议上观察到这一点。他服用吗啡，你能感到他的痛苦，但他仍然兴致高昂。”

Mr. Cue has become a vocal defender of Mr. Jobs’s legacy, too, and he took to Twitter recently to criticize the filmmaker Alex Gibney’s new documentary about the former Apple chief as “an inaccurate and mean-spirited view of my friend. It’s not a reflection of the Steve I knew.” Minutes later, Mr. Cue praised “Becoming Steve Jobs.”

库伊同样成为了发声捍卫乔布斯后世形象的卫道士，他最近发推特批评电影制作人亚历克斯·布吉尼(Alex Gibney)拍摄的乔布斯纪录片是“一种对我的朋友不准确且刻薄的看法。这不是我所认识的那个史蒂夫。”随后，库伊赞扬了《成为史蒂夫·乔布斯》。

Of course, endorsements from corporate executives hardly ensure that the book will be popular. “Becoming Steve Jobs” is the latest entry to a crowded subgenre of breathless technology books aiming to unravel the mysteries of the late pioneer, works that include “Inside Steve’s Brain,” “The 66 Secrets of Steve Jobs,” “The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs,” and, for would-be Keynote rock stars, “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs.”

当然，公司高管们的支持很难确保此书一定会大卖。很多令人窒息的科技书都以揭开已逝先驱的神秘面纱为主题，《成为史蒂夫·乔布斯》是这之中的最新作品。类似的作品还包括《撬开苹果》、《史蒂夫·乔布斯的66个秘密》、《史蒂夫·乔布斯的创新秘诀》以及那些励志成为Keynote专家的人所钟爱的《史蒂夫·乔布斯的魔力演讲》。

The publisher of “Becoming Steve Jobs,” the Crown Publishing Group, is promoting the book as the first account to get the story right, calling it “the definitive history.” Crown has increased the print run to 85,000 copies from a planned first printing of 40,000.

《成为史蒂夫·乔布斯》的发行商皇冠出版集团称，该书是迄今为止对乔布斯的唯一正确解读，是“无法取代的历史”，并把印刷量从起初计划的4万册增至8.5万册。

Roger Scholl, the vice president and executive editor of Crown Publishing, said the market for Steve Jobs books was not close to saturated. “He led such a rich and full life, there’s more to be done on him,” he said.

皇冠出版集团副主席、执行主编罗杰·舒尔(Roger Scholl)认为关于乔布斯的书籍市场还没有饱和。“他有着如此丰富完整的一生，（我们）能做的还有很多，”他说。