Who is Elon Musk’s biographer Walter Isaacson?
ELON Musk has announced that Steve Jobs’ biographer is writing a book about him.
Walter Isaacson, 69, is a bestselling author, including of books on Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein – which was made into a TV series called ‘Genius’.
Tipping his helmet at being the subject of a huge biography – Elon Musk[/caption] Walter Isaacson, who is writing about the Telsa boss[/caption]Who is Walter Isaacson?
Walter Isaacson, 69, is the Leonard Lauder Professor of American History and Values at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The US author penned a best-selling tome on Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
And in February 2021 his newest book, The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, was published.
That tells how American biochemist Dr Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution with CRISPR technology which will help cure diseases, fend off viruses and result in healthier babies.
Born in New Orleans, he is a graduate of Harvard College and of Pembroke College of Oxford University.
Isaacson began his career at The Sunday Times in London and then the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
He has been the chairman of CNN and the editor of TIME magazine – where he had served as a political correspondent.
He’s also a contributor on Amanpour, CNN International’s global affairs interview program.
In 2017, Isaacson published Leonardo da Vinci, which offered new discoveries about Leonardo’s life and work.
He is also the author of The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014); Steve Jobs (2011); Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007); Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003); and Kissinger: A Biography (1992).
How does he know Elon Musk?
In June 2021, Fox Business reported that Isaacson had been talking to Musk about a biography.
Sources told Fox that the author had been mulling the book over, with Musk keen to have a solid writer of Isaacson’s stature to focus on him.
Then, on August 4, Elon Musk suddenly tweeted: “If you’re curious about Tesla, SpaceX & my general goings on, @WalterIsaacson is writing a biography”.
In response to a question on social media, the 50-year-old confirmed that Isaacson had already shadowed him for several days to gather material for the book.
Isaacson compared Musk to Jobs in a Yahoo Finance interview a few months ago, saying “in some ways, he’s the Steve Jobs of our time”.
When will Elon Musk’s biography be released?
There has been no official announcement about the release of Elon Musk’s biography.
Simon & Schuster, which has previously published several of Isaacson’s books, “also did not immediately respond to a question about whether it would be involved with a Musk biography” reports CNN Business.
When asked via Twitter whether Isaacson’s book deal meant Musk would no longer write his own book, Musk replied: “Maybe one day”.
In the meantime, a new book profiling the Tesla CEO titled “Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk and the Bet of the Century” has been published by Wall Street Journal reporter Tim Higgins.
It tells how Musk told overworked staff they had no right to complain as “I can be on my own private island with naked supermodels, drinking mai tais but I’m not”.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO also allegedly told one employee: “I’m in the factory working my ass off, so I don’t want to hear about how hard everyone else in the factory works.”
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But Musk has denied many of the claims in Power Play.
He slammed it by saying: “Higgins managed to make his book both false and boring.”
Musk previously gave interviews for a biography by Ashlee Vance that was published in 2015, before Tesla became the most valuable car company in the world.
Elon Musk isn’t impressed with a recent book published about him[/caption]