Elvis: We Love You Tender (Delacorte/Dell, 1980).
As a baby boomer who came of age in the turbulence of the late 1960s, I was not of the Elvis generation. Perhaps it was fate that brought me to Graceland in the wake of Presley’s death, when I became one of the first journalists to write a truly inside book about one of the most famous men in the world, as seen through the eyes of his step family. Presley’s decline and death was one of the biggest stories of the time, and what I found in Memphis was more than a story of rock and roll or fame but an American tragedy of Shakespearean complexity and magnitude. As I set out to document the truth of what had really happened to Elvis in his final years, my greatest challenge was cut through the myths and tabloid sensationalism and humanize Elvis with a true understanding of his emotional life. The result was a bestseller.
“Nothing has told his story as convincingly—or as compassionately—as this book.”
“Their story, cobbled together twenty years on with the excitable help of journalist Martin Torgoff...will probably be by far the warmest—vivid testimony to the hysteria that the King still manages to inspire.”
“The first really behind-the-scenes look at a life that touched millions…a human portrayal that does not skirt the controversial issues of drugs and sex.”
“Especially good at describing those last declining months.”
“The best and closest look at the private life of the most famous man in the twentieth century…The best and truest story of all-devouring fame and power that we’re likely to encounter for many years.”