Benjamin franklin and albert einstein, this is the exclusive biography of steve jobs

A 
Regular Guy
, published in 1996. The book’s title character is based on Jobs, and to some extent it 
adheres to reality: It depicts Jobs’s quiet generosity to, and purchase of a special car for, a brilliant 
friend who had degenerative bone disease, and it accurately describes many unflattering aspects of 
his relationship with Lisa, including his original denial of paternity. But other parts are purely 
fiction; Chrisann had taught Lisa at a very early age how to drive, for example, but the book’s 
scene of “Jane” driving a truck across the mountains alone at age five to find her father of course 
never happened. In addition, there are little details in the novel that, in journalist parlance, are too 
good to check, such as the head-snapping description of the character based on Jobs in the very 
first sentence: “He was a man too busy to flush toilets.”
On the surface, the novel’s fictional portrayal of Jobs seems harsh. Simpson describes her main 
character as unable “to see any need to pander to the wishes or whims of other people.” His 
hygiene is also as dubious as that of the real Jobs. “He didn’t believe in deodorant and often 
professed that with a proper diet and the peppermint castile soap, you would neither perspire nor 
smell.” But the novel is lyrical and intricate on many levels, and by the end there is a fuller picture 
of a man who loses control of the great company he had founded and learns to appreciate the 
daughter he had abandoned. The final scene is of him dancing with his daughter.
Jobs later said that he never read the novel. “I heard it was about me,” he told me, “and if it was 
about me, I would have gotten really pissed off, and I didn’t want to get pissed at my sister, so I 
didn’t read it.” However, he told the 
New York Times
a few months after the book appeared that he 
had read it and saw the reflections of himself in 
the main character. “About 25% of it is totally me, right down to the mannerisms,” he told the 
reporter, Steve Lohr. “And I’m certainly not telling you which 25%.” His wife said that, in fact, 
Jobs glanced at the book and asked her to read it for him to see what he should make of it.
Simpson sent the manuscript to Lisa before it was published, but at first she didn’t read more 
than the opening. “In the first few pages, I was confronted with my family, my anecdotes, my 
things, my thoughts, myself in the character Jane,” she noted. “And sandwiched between the truths 
was invention—lies to me, made more evident because of their dangerous proximity to the truth.” 
Lisa was wounded, and she wrote a piece for the Harvard 
Advocate
explaining why. Her first draft 
was very bitter, then she toned it down a bit before she published it. She felt violated by Simpson’
s friendship. “I didn’t know, for those six years, that Mona was collecting,” she wrote. “I didn’t 
know that as I sought her consolations and took her advice, she, too, was taking.” Eventually Lisa 
reconciled with Simpson. They went out to a coffee shop to discuss the book, and Lisa told her 
that she hadn’t been able to finish it. Simpson told her she would like the ending. Over the years 
Lisa had an on-and-off relationship with Simpson, but it would be closer in some ways than the 
one she had with her father.
Children
When Powell gave birth in 1991, a few months after her wedding to Jobs, their child was known 
for two weeks as “baby boy Jobs,” because settling on a name was proving only slightly less 
difficult than choosing a washing machine. Finally, they named him Reed Paul Jobs. His middle 
name was that of Jobs’s father, and his first name (both Jobs and Powell insist) was chosen 
because it sounded good rather than because it was the name of Jobs’s college.
Reed turned out to be like his father in many ways: incisive and smart, with intense eyes and a 
mesmerizing charm. But unlike his father, he had sweet manners and a self-effacing grace. He was 
creative—as a kid he liked to dress in costume and stay in character—and also a great student, 
interested in science. He could replicate his father’s stare, but he was demonstrably affectionate 
and seemed not to have an ounce of cruelty in his nature.

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Erin Siena Jobs was born in 1995. She was a little quieter and sometimes suffered from not 
getting much of her father’s attention. She picked up her father’s interest in design and 
architecture, but she also learned to keep a bit of an emotional distance, so as not to be hurt by his 
detachment.
The youngest child, Eve, was born in 1998, and she turned into a strong-willed, funny 
firecracker who, neither needy nor intimidated, knew how to handle her father, negotiate with him 
(and sometimes win), and even make fun of him. Her father joked that she’s the one who will run 
Apple someday, if she doesn’t become president of the United States.
Jobs developed a strong relationship with Reed, but with his daughters he was more distant. As 
he would with others, he would occasionally focus on them, but just as often would completely 
ignore them when he had other things on his mind. “He focuses on his work, and at times he has 
not been there for the girls,” Powell said. At one point Jobs marveled to his wife at how well their 
kids were turning out, “especially since we’re not always there for them.” This amused, and 
slightly annoyed, Powell, because she had given up her career when Reed turned two and she 
decided she wanted to have more children.
In 1995 Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison threw a fortieth-birthday party for Jobs filled with tech 
stars and moguls. Ellison had become a close friend, and he would often take the Jobs family out 
on one of his many luxurious yachts. Reed started referring to him as “our rich friend,” which was 
amusing evidence of how his father refrained from ostentatious displays of wealth. The lesson 
Jobs learned from his Buddhist days was that material possessions often cluttered life rather than 
enriched it. “Every other CEO I know has a security detail,” he said. “They’ve even got them at 
their homes. It’s a nutso way to live. We just decided that’s not how we wanted to raise our kids.”

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