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'Steve Jobs' Book Reveals Delay In Cancer Surgery; Vow To Destroy Android

<p>For his upcoming biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson conducted more than 40 interviews with the enigmatic tech leader.</p>

For his upcoming biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson conducted more than 40 interviews with the enigmatic tech leader.

With a book about Steve Jobs' life set to hit real and virtual shelves soon, his official biographer, Walter Isaacson, is appearing on 60 Minutes this Sunday. And as often happens in these cases, portions of the book have hit the web a little ahead of its Oct. 24 publish date.

In particular, the Associated Press has given it a good going-over. And you can see a preview of Isaacson's appearance on the Sunday show below. If you're wondering why 60 Minutes got the interview, please remember that its network, CBS, is a corporate sibling of Simon and Schuster, the new biography's publishers.

Update at noon, ET:You can hear Isaacson discuss his new book on NPR Tuesday, when Morning Edition and Fresh Air will bring you their interviews with the author.

CBS has put a preview of the 60 Minutes interview online:

Our original post continues:

Here are some highlights about the book (titled simply Steve Jobs), gleaned from the AP and around the web:

Cancer Questions: Jobs, who died on Oct. 5 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, reportedly delayed surgery for nine months after learning that he had a tumor indicating a treatable form of the cancer. The AP reports: "Isaacson, quoting Jobs, writes in the book: "'I really didn't want them to open up my body, so I tried to see if a few other things would work,' he told me years later with a hint of regret."

Google:After the first Android phones came out, Jobs viewed them as using technology stolen from Apple. Isaacson writes:

"I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong," Jobs said. "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."

Family Life: As if the story of Jobs' family ties weren't dramatic enough — with the revelation, when he was 32, that his sister is none other than novelist Mona Simpson — it turns out that Simpson tracked down their biological father, Abdulfattah Jandali. And she told Isaacson that Jandali had met Jobs when Jandali ran a restaurant in Silicon Valley — but neither father nor son knew of their biological connection. According to CBS:

"Everybody used to come there," Isaacson says Jandali told Simpson. "Even Steve Jobs used to eat there. Yeah, he was a great tipper."

Jobs reportedly said that the early coincidence "was amazing."

Warning, And Helping, Obama: When he met President Obama late in 2010, Jobs warned the U.S. chief executive's approach to the business world meant he was "headed for a one-term presidency," according the The Huffington Post, which has also acquired a copy of the biography. But the Apple leader also "offered to design political ads for President Obama's 2012 campaign," according to the site.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bill Chappell is a writer and editor on the News Desk in the heart of NPR's newsroom in Washington, D.C.
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