Sinatra: The Chairman

Description

Just in time for the Chairman's centennial, the endlessly absorbing sequel to James Kaplan's bestselling Frank: The Voice Finally the definitive biography that Frank Sinatra, justly termed 'The Entertainer of the Century,' deserves and requires. Like Peter Guralnick on Elvis, Kaplan goes behind the legend to give us the man in full, in his many guises and aspects: peerless singer, (sometimes) powerful actor, business mogul, tireless lover and associate of the powerful and infamous. In 2010's Frank: The Voice, James Kaplan, in rich, distinctive, compulsively-readable prose, told the story of Frank Sinatra's meteoric rise to fame, subsequent failures, and reinvention as a star of the stage and screen. The story of 'Ol' Blue Eyes; continues with Sinatra: The Chairman, picking up the day after Frank claimed his Academy Award in 1954 and had reestablished himself as the top recording artist in music. Frank's life post-Oscar was incredibly dense: in between recording albums and singles, he often shot four or five movies a year; did TV show and nightclub appearances; started his own label, Reprise; and juggled his considerable commercial ventures (movie production, the restaurant business, even prizefighter management) alongside his famous and sometimes notorious social activities and commitments.

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, 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.

Kaplan writes with an addictive wiliness, vigour and feeling that suit his subject . . . to a tee - Daily Telegraph Authoritative and enjoyable . . . important too - Sunday Times A wealth of entertaining detail about the singer's career, gnawing personal insecurity, lavish sexual indulgence, and obsessive musical virtuosity - The Observer Evokes a sense of period with crackling energy - Sunday Express Very few writers can write coherently about what makes music work. Fewer still can tell what makes it profound. Kaplan can - The Age At last, Sinatra has the biography he deserves - The Irish Times