NEW YORK – Apple CEO Steve Jobs has finally agreed to participate in a book about his life.

Simon & Schuster announced Sunday that Walter Isaacson's "iSteve: The Book of Jobs" will be published in early 2012. Isaacson has been working on the long-rumored biography since 2009 and has interviewed Jobs, members of his family, colleagues at Apple and competitors.

Many books have been published about Jobs, but not with his approval. Isaacson has written best-selling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein.

Fifty-six-year-old Jobs has had numerous health problems and announced in January that he would take his third leave of absence in seven years. During that time, he has survived a rare but curable form of pancreatic cancer and undergone a liver transplant. He appeared at a press conference in early March to announce the iPad 2.