Last Train to Memphis; The Rise of Elvis Presley

Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Company, 1994. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. xiv, 560, [2] pages. Author's Note. Illustrations. Endpaper map. Notes. Bibliography. Discographical Note. Index. DJ has some wear and soiling. Peter Guralnick (born December 15, 1943, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American music critic, author, and screenwriter. He specializes in the history of early rock'n'roll and has written on Elvis Presley, Sam Phillips, and Sam Cooke. Guralnick graduated from Boston University in 1971 with a master's degree in creative writing. He then began writing books about the history of rock'n'roll, blues, country music, and soul music. His two-volume biography of Elvis Presley, Last Train to Memphis in 1994, followed by Careless Love in 1999, placed the story of Presley's career into a rise and fall arc. From the moment that he first shook up the world in the mid 1950s, Elvis Presley has been one of the most vivid and enduring myths of American culture. "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley" is the first biography to go past that myth and present an Elvis beyond the legend. Based on hundreds of interviews and nearly a decade of research, it traces the evolution not just of the man but of the music and of the culture he left utterly transformed, creating a completely fresh portrait of Elvis and his world. This volume tracks the first twenty-four years of Elvis' life, covering his childhood, the stunning first recordings at Sun Records, and the early RCA hits. These were the years of his improbable self-invention and unprecedented triumphs, when it seemed that everything that Elvis tried succeeded wildly. There was scarcely a cloud in sight through this period until, in 1958, he was drafted into the army and his mother died shortly thereafter. The book closes on that somber and poignant note.