Scott Eyman was formerly the literary critic at The Palm Beach Post and is the author or coauthor of fifteen books, including the bestseller John Wayne and (with actor Robert Wagner) the bestsellers Pieces of My Heart and You Must Remember This. Among his other books are Hank and Jim: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart; Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille; Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer; and Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford. Eyman also writes book reviews for The Wall Street Journal, and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune. He and his wife, Lynn, live in West Palm Beach.
"[An] authoritative and enormously engaging new biography. . . .
[Eyman] takes you through Wayne's life, his death and his legend in
a detailed, remarkably knowledgeable yet extremely readable way."
-- Peter Bogdanovich * The New York Times Book Review *
"A spirited portrait of John Wayne and the Hollywood he worked in.
. . . Traces his transition from the eager, boyish roles he played
in early movies to confident leading man." -- Michiko Kakutani *
The New York Times *
"No Wayne biography until now has ridden the defile between the
reverential and the tendentious with quite the graceful equilibrium
of this one. . . . Eyman gets at the details that the bean-counters
and myth-spinners miss. . . . Wayne's intimates have told Eyman
things here that they've never told anyone else." -- David Kipen *
The Los Angeles Times *
"Deeply researched and totally absorbing." -- Clive Sinclair * The
Wall Street Journal *
"We all think we know John Wayne, in part because he seemed to be
playing himself in movie after movie. Yet as Eyman carefully lays
out, 'John Wayne' was an invention, a persona created layer by
layer by an ambitious young actor." -- Glenn Frankel * The
Washington Post *
"Scott Eyman has taken a legend and a statue and given us an odd,
decent, muddled but deeply likeable man. That's what makes this
book so readable and so touching." -- David Thomson, author of The
New Biographical Dictionary of Film and Moments That Made the
Movies
"[An] exemplary biography. . . . Eyman appears to have had broad
access to Wayne's business and family life, and the result is a
book with a compelling claim to being definitive." -- Robert Horton
* Film Comment *
"In comprehensive detail, this new biography chronicles a great
star at work. . . . Like a cinematographer, Mr. Eyman offers
readers Wayne from many angles, in his own words and the words of
those who worked with him. . . . An engrossing record of how the
Duke stayed top dog for so long." * The Economist *
"One of the greatest movie star biographies ever written." -- Allen
Barra * Salon.com *
"A comprehensive and compelling examination of The Duke. . . .
Insightful, exhaustive and engrossing-a definitive portrait of the
man and the legend." * Kirkus Reviews *
"Drawing deeply on interviews with family and friends, acclaimed
biographer Eyman colorfully chronicles Wayne's life and work. . . .
Compulsively readable." * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *
"Eyman's exhaustively informative biography is, in essence, a
tribute. One ends it liking Duke a lot more." -- John Sutherland *
The Times (London) *
"Full of historical detail and fan facts, John Wayne tracks
shy Marion Robert Morrison's path to the screen hero who got scant
credit for his own craft in creating the John Wayne that rallied
audiences." -- David D'Arcy * The San Francisco Chronicle *
"It would be hard to find a more complete picture of a public
figure's life and legend than Eyman gives us of the Duke." -- Larry
Thornberry * The American Spectator *
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