This Is The Official Steve Jobs Biography Cover (And It’s A Mistake)

We knew what the front would look like, and now we’ve got the rear. And I can’t help but think they got the entire thing completely backwards.

The front of the jacket, a black and white portrait taken for Fortune mag two years ago, is pretty generic by Jobsian standards. It’s the man we — and the corporate planet — know. Steve Jobs distilled to an icon. And being iconic is usually a good thing! But the manicured beard, the glasses, the turtleneck. It’s exactly what we’d expect. Too sterile, too staid. It’s Steve Jobs as a product — as a spokesman. Not as a technological pioneer the calibre of Henry Ford.

For that Steve Jobs, turn to the back. Steve Jobs in his 20s, cradling the original Mac. The firebrand. The dropout. The young genius.

Contemporary Steve is an integral part of the story — the man who saw his tiny company turn into the most valuable in US history. But when I think of the essences of Apple and the man who helped birth it, I don’t think of the Fortune magazine headshot. I think of the shaggy-haired guy on the floor, who, just by looking into his smug eyes, knew he was going to blow everything away. [Fortune]

Image: Simon & Schuster