Elvis

"Albert Goldman has written the definitive biography of Elvis Presley--a biography of a star and a symbol, an American dream and an adolescent illusion, the story of an era of energy and excess. Goldman portrays Presley as the archetypal superstar, a catalyst of American popular culture--glorified, condemned, and mythicized during his reign as king of the age of rock. After three years of research and over 600 interviews, the truth about the pop culture phenomenon of the century is told here for the first time in a book that combines astonishing disclosures with brilliant cultural commentary. Albert Goldman dramatizes with a novelist's skill the rise and fall of Elvis Presley. He illuminates the man and the myth against a backdrop of Memphis and Vegas, down-home religion and pink Cadillacs, white gospel and rhythm and blues and the music that rocked. Here is the life and times--the schemes and scams, the money and power plays, the decadence and dissolution and the panoply of life as showbiz. Albert Goldman's work has made obsolete the trendy books spawned by Presley's death. His is a monumental achievement, the most electric and explosive work ever published on the culture shock called Elvis."--Dust jacket.