Books : JOHN WAYNES AMERICA: The Politics of Celebrity
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In association with Amazon.com
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by: Garry Wills
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.43028092
EAN: 9780684808239
ISBN: 0684808234
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: March 10, 1997
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Sales Rank: 161003
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The best-selling author of Lincoln at Gettysburg explores the life and times of John Wayne and his legend, explaining how the man, Marion Morrison, became a myth and how that myth shaped Americans' political attitudes and ideas. 75,000 first printing. $60,000 ad/promo. Tour.
Amazon.com Review:
This book poses an interesting question: How is it that John Wayne came to embody a certain politics for America? In giving his answer, Wills flashes his usual encyclopedic knowledge of intellectual and cultural materials. He knows his Aristotle and his Groucho and knows when to use them. The knee-jerk analysis of Wayne's status is that he was a blustery flag-waver. Wills's answer is more subtle: that Wayne 'stood for an America that was disappearing or had disappeared.' And according to Wills, Wayne did this in different ways at different stages of his career. In his early successes (such as Stagecoach), he represented naive virtue; later he would portray the dark acceptance of responsibility (Sands of Iwo Jima). And finally, he moved on to model a conscious acceptance of the anachronism of all such individual honor (The Shootist).
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - The Most Serious and Egaging Wayne Biography
Wills, author of many other works, including the amazing Lincoln at Gettysburg, sets an examination of Wayne's films squarely in the American zeitgeist - given them added heft and importance.
Wills will appear at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral on October 15, 2007, for a conversation with Dean Alan Jones. It will also be webcast live and archived for later listening. More information is available at: http://www.gracecathedral.org/calendar/detail.php?eid=1053.
Rating: - Engrossing biography of the Duke!
An immensely engaging analysis of the actor who for many years was the #1 most popular film star in the world, even many years after his death. The author diagnostically and exhaustingly detailed perspective of Wayne the actor vs. Wayne the man is what sets it apart as a landmark bio. You will not be displeased. In one chapter the author discusses the fact that, after having seen "High Noon" he was so upset with the scene wherein Coop throws his marshall's badge into the dusty road that he was instrumental ... Read More
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