Author of Steve Jobs biography to pen book on Elon Musk

Published by

Thu, August 5, 2021

Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Elon Musk will be the subject of a biography by Walter Isaacson, the U.S. author who penned a best-selling tome on Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

“If you’re curious about Tesla, SpaceX & my general goings-on, @WalterIsaacson is writing a biography,” Musk tweeted late on Wednesday.

In response to a question on social media, Musk said 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.”

Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies organization moderates the “A Conversation with Richard Haass and Walter Isaacson: America’s Role in the World” event at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California April 30, 2012. REUTERS/Fred Prouser/File Photo

Isaacson is also the author of books on Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, the latter of which was made into a TV series called “Genius”.

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 and before SpaceX became the first private company to send humans into orbit.

Elon Musk in Florida in 2018. It was launch day for a rocket built by his company SpaceX, which became the first private company to launch a spacecraft that powerful. | Todd Anderson/New York Times

In another reply to a Twitter user who asked whether the book deal meant Musk would no longer write his own book, Musk replied: “Maybe one day.”

“At long last … someone will penetrate the silent, mysterious, unknowable façade that particular subject projects … ;),” another user tweeted, to which Musk replied with a laughing emoji.