前言(2) Introduction: How This Book Came to Be

When he was restored to the throne at Apple, we put him on the cover of Time, and soon thereafter he began offering me his ideas for a series we were doing on the most influential people of the century.

He had launched his "Think Different" campaign, featuring iconic photos of some of the same people we were considering, and he found the endeavor of assessing historic influence fascinating.

After I had deflected his suggestion that I write a biography of him, I heard from him every now and then.

At one point I emailed to ask if it was true, as my daughter had told me, that the Apple logo was an homage to Alan Turing, the British computer pioneer who broke the German wartime codes and then committed suicide by biting into a cyanide-laced apple.

He replied that he wished he had thought of that, but hadn't.

That started an exchange about the early history of Apple, and I found myself gathering string on the subject, just in case I ever decided to do such a book.

When my Einstein biography came out, he came to a book event in Palo Alto and pulled me aside to suggest, again, that he would make a good subject.

His persistence baffled me.

He was known to guard his privacy, and I had no reason to believe he'd ever read any of my books.

Maybe someday, I continued to say.