Elvis Presley, Bobbie Ann Mason
Elvis Presley, Bobbie Ann Mason
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Elvis Presley

Author: Bobbie Ann Mason

Narrator: Karen White

Unabridged: 5 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/06/2002

Synopsis

PEN/Hemingway Award-winner Bobbie Ann Mason turns her acumen on one of twentieth-century America's most mysterious icons, The King himself. This new biography eschews sensational speculation to paint a thoughtfully researched but wholly felt portrait of the man-child who metamorphosed into a hero, one of the most popular and least supported characters in American history. In 1955, at age 20, Elvis provoked his first near-riot when he sang at a baseball park in Jacksonville. Inspired by black gospel quartets and mentored by producer Sam Phillips, Elvis blended hillbilly music with rhythm and blues in a synthesis that defined a new direction for popular music. Mason's book gets at the consciousness of the icon and of the cultural climate that made him one.

About The Author

Bobbie Ann Mason is the author of The Girl in the Blue Beret, In Country, Shiloh and Other Stories, An Atomic Romance, Nancy Culpepper, and a memoir, Clear Springs. She is the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, two Southern Book Awards, and numerous other prizes, including the O. Henry and the Pushcart. She was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the American Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. She is former writer-in-residence at the University of Kentucky.Karen White is the New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty novels, including the Tradd Street series, The Night the Lights Went Out, Flight Patterns, The Sound of Glass, A Long Time Gone, and The Time Between. She is the coauthor of The Forgotton Room with New York Times bestselling authors Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig. She grew up in London but now lives with her husband and two children near Atlanta, Georgia.

Reviews

Goodreads review by John

As a Southerner , author Bobbie Ann Mason has a natural understanding for much of Elvis' early background which shaped so much of his life. While not an in depth study, the author provides a commentary that lends depth and sympathy to an original American icon. There was no one with a career like El......more

Goodreads review by Caroline

I’ve read many books about Elvis, and this is by far the best. It’s a short easy read, but really gives an insight into the Southern mindset of Elvis, and the little details that led to his attitude, fears and ultimately his downfall. A really great help in understanding why it went so wrong for him.......more

Goodreads review by Rod

A nice little bio and a quick read. Elvis always reminds me of my mother. She was a teenager when he exploded into fame in the Fifties. She was such a huge fan that, growing up in our house, any Elvis movie, special or biopic on TV was mandatory viewing. She indoctrinated me into Elvis fandom, and I......more

Goodreads review by Peter

The Penguin Lives series is/was a series of short biographies published about famous people written by respected authors. The American writer Bobbie Ann Mason’s short biography of Elvis Presley fits the mission of The Penguin Lives series well. Mason organizes the biography of Presley in a series of......more

Quotes

If youÆre going to read one book to find out what Elvis was all about, MasonÆs is a good choice. She brings to the task a novelistÆs eye and the sensibilities of a Southern girl who came of age in the 1950s. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

If youÆre going to read one book to find out what Elvis was all about, MasonÆs is a good choice. She brings to the task a novelistÆs eye and the sensibilities of a Southern girl who came of age in the 1950s. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

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