Will beat previously announced 2012 date

An anticipated Steve Jobs biography will hit shelves on November 21st of this year, according to a new Barnes & Noble listing. Via that retailer the book will cost $15 for download to a Nook or the Nook app, or $32.50 in hardcover form. A preorder of the hardcover is much cheaper, only $20.40.

The new date is a radical departure, as the book was previously announced as shipping on March 6th, 2012. The Barnes & Noble listing also reveals that the title measures 448 pages, and is based on over 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over the course of two years, as well as over a 100 interviews with other people such as friends, family, coworkers and competitors. Its primary focus is on how Jobs "revolutionized" several industries.

The book is not the first biography of Jobs, but is notable as the first to have such personal cooperation. The Apple CEO allegedly asked for no control over content or proofreading, and encouraged people he knows to speak honestly even if there might be bad blood. "I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that," Barnes & Noble quotes Jobs as saying. "But I don't have any skeletons in my closet that can't be allowed out."

Jobs has not always reacted well to past books about him. Most infamously he he banned all titles by publisher Wiley & Sons after it released iCon, an unauthorized biography, in May 2005.

by MacNN Staff