Description
Book SynopsisThrough a career that spanned decades and included dozens of films-among them such American masterpieces asThe Searchers, The Grapes of Wrath, The Quiet Man, Stagecoach, and How Green Was My Valley-John Ford managed to leave as his legacy a body of work that few filmmakers will ever equal. Yet as bold as the stamp of his personality was on each film, he was reticent about his personal life. Basically shy, and intensely private, he was known to enjoy making up stories about himself, some of them based loosely on fact but many of them pure fabrications. Ford preferred instead to let his films speak for him. What mattered to Ford was always what was up there on the screen.
Now, in this definitive look at the life and career of one of America''s true cinematic giants, noted biographer and critic Scott Eyman, working with the full participation of the Ford estate, has managed to document and delineate both aspects of John Ford''s life-the human and the legend.
Trade Review"Eyman has emerged as one of the most distinguished and reliable of popular film historians. Print the Legend displays his broad knowledge, his tact, his willingness to credit other writers, his capacity to avoid sensationalism but not to flinch from difficult truths." --Robert Sklar, Washington Post Book World * Review *
"Everything about this model biography is a pleasure." -- Malcolm Jones * Newsweek *
"A quietly magnificent biography of an American original.” * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *
“A thorough, honest, empathetic biography that examines both the man and his towering achievements.” -- Leonard Maltin
Table of Contents
Contents
Prologue
Part One From Maine to Hollywood
Part Two Learning a Craft
Part Three Mastering an Art
Part Four At War
Part Five The Perils of Independence
Part Six A Lion in Winter
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
John Ford Filmography
Source Notes
Bibliography
Index
