FRANK: THE MAKING OF A LEGEND
James Kaplan
Bestselling
author James Kaplan redefines Frank Sinatra in a triumphant new biography that
includes many rarely seen photographs. Frank Sinatra was the best-known entertainer
of the twentieth century-infinitely charismatic, lionized and notorious in equal
measure. But despite his mammoth fame, Sinatra the man has remained an enigma.
As Bob Spitz did with the Beatles, Tina Brown for Diana, and Peter Guralnick for
Elvis, James Kaplan goes behind the legend and hype to bring alive a force that
changed popular culture in fundamental ways. Sinatra endowed the songs he sang
with the explosive conflict of his own personality. He also made the very act
of listening to pop music a more personal experience than it had ever been.
In
'Frank: The Making of a Legend', Kaplan reveals how he did it, bringing deeper
insight than ever before to the complex psyche and turbulent life behind that
incomparable vocal instrument. We relive the years 1915 to 1954 in glistening
detail, experiencing as if for the first time Sinatra's journey from the streets
of Hoboken, his fall from the apex of celebrity, and his Oscar-winning return
in From Here to Eternity. Here at last is the biographer who makes the reader
feel what it was really like to be Frank Sinatra-as man, as musician, as tortured
genius.
JAMES KAPLAN is a novelist and nonfiction writer whose
essays, reviews, and profiles have appeared in 'The New Yorker', the 'New York
Times Magazine', 'Vanity Fair', 'Esquire', and 'New York'. He co-authored John
McEnroe's autobiography, 'You Cannot Be Serious', a number-one 'New York Times'
bestseller, and co-authored the bestselling 'Dean and Me' with Jerry Lewis. He
lives in Westchester, New York, with his wife and three sons.
'Frank:
The Making of a Legend' is available now.
