喬布斯新傳問世 蘋果高管忙叫好

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·喬布斯(Steve Jobs)珍視在蘋果任職期間僱員和高管們對他隱私的保護。不過現在，爲了塑造喬布斯的後世形象，他的副手們爲他發聲了。

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.

包括首席執行官蒂姆·庫克(Timothy D. Cook)在內的蘋果高層，通過採訪和推特推文表達了對蘋果聯合創始人的新傳記的支持，這本名爲《成爲史蒂夫·喬布斯》(Becomin Steve Jobs)的書非喬布斯本人授權，於上週二上市。在這本書中，蘋果高管們把批評的矛頭指向了另一本喬布斯傳記——《史蒂夫·喬布斯》(Steve Jobs)，這部書經喬布斯本人授權，作者是沃爾特·艾薩克森(Walter Isaacson)，於2011年喬布斯去世不久後出版。

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.”

庫克在布倫特·施蘭德(Brent Schlende)和裏克·特澤爾(Rick Tetzeli)所著的這本新傳記中說，艾薩克森的這本暢銷書給蘋果的領袖喬布斯帶來“巨大的損害”。《快公司》(Fast Company)雜誌的四月刊摘錄了庫克的這段言論­。“這本書沒有準確地表現出喬布斯本人，”庫克說，“我讀到的是一個我永遠也不想與之共處的人。”

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.

長期擔任蘋果首席設計師的喬納森·伊夫(Jony Ive)在《紐約客》(New Yorker)二月的人物特寫文章中也對艾薩克森的傳記進行了指責。“我覺得那本書不能再差了”，他表示自己僅僅閱讀了書中的一部分。

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.”

蘋果互聯網軟件與服務負責人艾迪·庫伊(Eddy Cue)上上週發表推文稱讚新傳：“寫喬布斯寫得最好的書就要發行了——《成爲史蒂夫·喬布斯》。真不錯，終於寫對一回。”蘋果的iBooks賬號上週也發推特說，“《成爲史蒂夫·喬布斯》是唯一一部真正瞭解喬布斯的人做出推薦的書。”

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.

蘋果高管們輪番對舊傳記進行公開批評，實屬少見。此前，在喬布斯手下工作時，他們對公司活動向來保持沉默。由此可見，蘋果公司正在努力重塑喬布斯的後世形象：喬布斯是一個和藹可親的領袖，而不是一個有着反覆無常、盛氣凌人單薄形象的人。爲了實現這一點，蘋果公司爲新傳記作者提供了採訪四位蘋果執行官的機會，其中包括庫克。週四，新傳記的兩位作者將在蘇豪區(SoHo)的蘋果商店內展開新書討論會，回答有關問題，可謂是蘋果公司對傳記認可的又一標誌。

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.

在郵件採訪中，施蘭德和特澤爾表示，贏得蘋果的配合並非易事。這兩位資深的科技記者介紹道，2012年，他們就傳記事宜首次接觸蘋果，但公司告訴他們，高層們不會接受採訪。18個月後，蘋果改變了主意。

“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.

“我覺得是我們的耐心和默默的堅持最後打動了他們，”施蘭德說。施蘭德報道喬布斯將近25年。他說之所以想寫這本書，是認爲喬布斯性格中有從未被記者捕捉到的一面。特澤爾也介紹道，雖然他們曾將書中的部分內容與蘋果公司和其他消息源進行覈查，並把最終版本展示給蘋果公司，但沒有允許蘋果公司“干預內容”。

“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.”

“史蒂夫去世後，我們思考了很長時間，覺得有責任把我們所知道的喬布斯更多地展現出來，”蘋果發言人史蒂夫·道林(Steve Dowling)說，“裏克與喬布斯長期保持往來，在觀察喬布斯的一生上擁有獨特的視角。因此，我們決定讓蘋果公司參與到布倫特和裏克的書中。這本書對喬布斯的捕捉比我們看到的任何書都要出色，我們爲當初的決定感到高興。”

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.”

一些有影響力的科技博客作家提前收到了樣書。約翰·格魯伯就是其中之一。格魯伯在博客Daring Fireball上評價該書“充滿智慧，信息準確而充實，有見解，但有時也令人無比心痛。”

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.

《財富》(Fortune)撰稿人菲利普·埃爾默-德威特(Philip Elmer-DeWit)在博客中說，施蘭德和喬布斯的長期往來使得這本新書從其他描寫喬布斯的書中脫穎而出。

“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.

“施蘭德展現出的故事大部分來源於對喬布斯的採訪錄音，這讓我們可以像施蘭德本人一樣去了解喬布斯。”埃爾默-德威特寫道。

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.

在一次採訪中，艾薩克森說，他嘗試對喬布斯採取不偏不倚的態度，不爲這位蘋果創始人的缺點製作糖衣。艾薩克森是阿斯彭研究所(Aspen Institute)的首席執行官，也是《時代》的前執行主編。他採訪過喬布斯本人超過40次，與喬布斯100多個親朋好友、對手或同事交談，這當中也包括庫克、艾維和庫伊。

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.

艾薩克森在《史蒂夫·喬布斯》的序言中寫道，喬布斯讓他來爲自己做傳記，除了封面以外，沒有對書施加任何控制。這本傳記問世後大爲流行，單在美國就賣出300多萬冊。

“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.

艾薩克森說，“我的書非常友好，而且真實，沒有匿名的攻擊。”他還補充說，自己多次因對描述對象太客氣了而遭到批評。

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.

艾薩克森說，他很高興看到更多的傳記和電影問世，比如關於喬布斯的紀錄片最近在西南偏南電影節(Southwest)上首映，還有由邁克爾·法斯本德(Michael Fassbender)飾演喬布斯的傳記電影。這些有利於觀衆理解喬布斯。他說，“其他了解史蒂夫的人也來寫書，這真的挺好的，那些真正愛他的人在書中可以展示他們的視角，這就是歷史被書寫的方式。”

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.

蘋果公司對《成爲史蒂夫·喬布斯》的積極響應說明，庫克正在讓蘋果變得更加開放和勇於表達。過去六個月，蘋果的高管頻頻現身於媒體活動，推廣新的零售店、Apple Watch和Apple Pay（一種嶄新的移動支付服務）。

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.

在維護蘋果形象方面，庫克也並不羞澀。去年，尤加利·I·凱恩(Yukari I. Kane)寫了本《困境中的帝國：後喬布斯時代的蘋果》(Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs)。庫克公開指責其一派胡言。凱恩認爲蘋果高管關於艾薩克森所著傳記五花八門的評論，反映出該公司的紀律變得更爲寬鬆。

“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.

“喬布斯是決定蘋果敘述的主腦，他的方法之一就是讓自己成爲蘋果唯一的發言人，而且至少在公開場合，公司騰架在所有紛爭之上，”凱恩說。她又補充，庫克的批評最後被她的海外出版人用在了圖書封面上。

“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.

《成爲史蒂夫·喬布斯》將喬布斯描繪爲善解人意的導師，是員工意願的表達者和技巧豐富的管理者，能夠挖掘出團隊的最佳水平。在《快公司》的摘錄中，庫克講述了2009年得知喬布斯需要肝移植後發生的故事。庫克發現自己和喬布斯的稀有血型一致，提出爲病痛的好友捐出部分肝臟。

“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!’ ”

“我真的希望他能聽我的，”庫克在書中說，“話沒說完他就把我堵回去了，‘不，’他說，‘我不會讓你這麼做的。永遠不會！’”

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

“他若是自私的人，”庫克繼續說，“是不會這麼回答的。”

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.

在這段摘錄的後面，庫伊說，在喬布斯在去世前的最後幾年，想盡辦法不要讓大家把他當成病人。“你可以在會議上觀察到這一點。他服用嗎啡，你能感到他的痛苦，但他仍然興致高昂。”

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.”

庫伊同樣成爲了發聲捍衛喬布斯後世形象的衛道士，他最近發推特批評電影製作人亞歷克斯·布吉尼(Alex Gibney)拍攝的喬布斯紀錄片是“一種對我的朋友不準確且刻薄的看法。這不是我所認識的那個史蒂夫。”隨後，庫伊讚揚了《成爲史蒂夫·喬布斯》。

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.”

當然，公司高管們的支持很難確保此書一定會大賣。很多令人窒息的科技書都以揭開已逝先驅的神祕面紗爲主題，《成爲史蒂夫·喬布斯》是這之中的最新作品。類似的作品還包括《撬開蘋果》、《史蒂夫·喬布斯的66個祕密》、《史蒂夫·喬布斯的創新祕訣》以及那些勵志成爲Keynote專家的人所鍾愛的《史蒂夫·喬布斯的魔力演講》。

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.

《成爲史蒂夫·喬布斯》的發行商皇冠出版集團稱，該書是迄今爲止對喬布斯的唯一正確解讀，是“無法取代的歷史”，並把印刷量從起初計劃的4萬冊增至8.5萬冊。

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.

皇冠出版集團副主席、執行主編羅傑·舒爾(Roger Scholl)認爲關於喬布斯的書籍市場還沒有飽和。“他有着如此豐富完整的一生，（我們）能做的還有很多，”他說。