Joel Williamson, Lineberger Professor Emeritus of the Humanities of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the author of a number of landmark works, including William Faulkner and Southern History (OUP, 1993) and The Crucible of Race: Black-White Relations in the American South since Emancipation (OUP, 1984), which won the Francis Parkman Prize, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and the Ralph Emerson Award. Both books were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Ted Ownby is Professor of History and Southern Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of American Dreams in Mississippi: Consumers, Poverty, and Culture, 1830-1998, among other books. Donald L. Shaw, who assisted with the final editing, is Kenan Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Joel Williamson's biography of Elvis Presley is an ambitious book that manages to hold the historical panorama of Southern white cult ure in the viewfinder while also probing into the more visceral details literally at one point, as we hear about the unpleasant facts revealed by the autopsy on Elvis's corpse and subconscious forces of Elvis's sexuality.

• Preface and Acknowledgments ; Foreword by Ted Ownby ; Introduction: The Death of Elvis ; Part One: The Bubble ; Ch. 1 The Dream ; Ch. 2 The Killers of the Dream ; Part Two: Why Elvis? ; Ch. 3 Vernon and Gladys ; Ch. 4 East Tupelo and Tupelo ; Ch. 5 Memphis ; Ch. 6 Dixie Locke and Sam Phillips ; Ch. 7 A Girl in the Bed ; Part Three: Comeback and Die ; Ch. 8 The Comeback Special ; Ch. 9 Girls and Guns ; Ch. 10 Psycho ; Part Four: The Fall ; Ch. 11 The Bodyguard Book ; Ch. 12 Saved ; Ch. 13 Graceland ; Ch. 14 The Last Day ; Conclusion: The Meditation Garden ; Notes ; Index

Joel Williamson, Lineberger Professor Emeritus of the Humanities of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the author of a number of landmark works, including William Faulkner and Southern History (OUP, 1993) and The Crucible of Race: Black-White Relations in the American South since Emancipation (OUP, 1984), which won the Francis Parkman Prize, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and the Ralph Emerson Award. Both books were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Ted Ownby is Professor of History and Southern Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of American Dreams in Mississippi: Consumers, Poverty, and Culture, 1830-1998, among other books. Donald L. Shaw, who assisted with the final editing, is Kenan Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Joel Williamson's biography of Elvis Presley is an ambitious book that manages to hold the historical panorama of Southern white cult ure in the viewfinder while also probing into the more visceral details literally at one point, as we hear about the unpleasant facts revealed by the autopsy on Elvis's corpse and subconscious forces of Elvis's sexuality.

• Preface and Acknowledgments ; Foreword by Ted Ownby ; Introduction: The Death of Elvis ; Part One: The Bubble ; Ch. 1 The Dream ; Ch. 2 The Killers of the Dream ; Part Two: Why Elvis? ; Ch. 3 Vernon and Gladys ; Ch. 4 East Tupelo and Tupelo ; Ch. 5 Memphis ; Ch. 6 Dixie Locke and Sam Phillips ; Ch. 7 A Girl in the Bed ; Part Three: Comeback and Die ; Ch. 8 The Comeback Special ; Ch. 9 Girls and Guns ; Ch. 10 Psycho ; Part Four: The Fall ; Ch. 11 The Bodyguard Book ; Ch. 12 Saved ; Ch. 13 Graceland ; Ch. 14 The Last Day ; Conclusion: The Meditation Garden ; Notes ; Index