Due for release from Taschen Publishers in the Movie Icons series is the 192 pages book "Elvis Presley: The Life and Times of the King" by F.X. Feeney (Author), Paul Duncan (Editor). The languages available are German, French and English (ISBN-10: 3822823236 / ISBN-13: 978-3822823231)
Synopsis (The New York Times Book Review):
Elvis Presley would have been the first to laugh at the mad, godlike status he attained after death, but he would have surely identified with the human, gospel-haunted need such adoration rises out of. He shared that need, and courted it. He could sing and move with a spellbinding violence and grace. Yet his nature was also marked by a startling passivity - an eerily contented lack of ambition at his essence that kept him from growing after his first fiery years of success. That early fire still burns, nevertheless, and his mythical figure remains an omnipresent fixture today.In "The Movie Icon" series, people talk about Hollywood glamour, about studios that had more stars than there are in heaven, about actors who weren't actors but were icons. Other people talk about these things, "Taschen" shows you. "Movie Icons" is a series of photo books that feature the most famous personalities in the history of cinema. These 192-page books are visual biographies of the stars. For each title, series editor Paul Duncan has painstaking selected approximately 150 high quality enigmatic and sumptuous portraits, colorful posters and lobby cards, rare film stills, and previously unpublished candid photos showing the stars as they really are. These images are accompanied by concise introductory essays by leading film writers; each book also includes a chronology, a filmography, and a bibliography, and is peppered with apposite quotes from the movies and from life.More bang for your buck! "...a fast-food, high-energy fix on the topic at hand."
Elvis Presley: The Life And Times Of The King
November 17, 2007 | Book Source:Amazon.co.ukRuthie wrote on
November 18, 2007
Again, I hope Mr. Feeney & Mr. Duncan did their homework. If they are talking about Elvis being passive towards his film career, they are right on the mark. Its no secret he lost interest & then began to hate the movies & his work in them. He just didn't have the spark for it anymore. However, he never lost his interest in his music, I mean good music, not the movie tunes. Yes, he had periods where he was feeling down & frustrated because he couldn't find what he wanted, but, according to Ernst Jorgensen (the most accurate & best Elvis biographer around) he would always eventually rally around & become serious once again about this music. Even when he was sick.
Another note: Many movie stars & other artists have had periods in their life when they became frustrated, bored, etc. & have even gone to the point of leaving their craft altogether until the inspiration or interest returned. A good example: Billy Joel. He went from writing rock to writing classical.