Description

Oscar Micheaux was the Jackie Robinson of film, the black D. W. Griffith—a bigger-than-life American folk hero whose important life story has been nearly forgotten today. The son of freed slaves, he roamed America as a Pullman porter before making his first mark as a homesteader in South Dakota—and going on from there to become the king of the "race cinema" industry, producing and/or directing nearly forty films during a time of Jim Crow segregation when African-American artists were not welcome in Hollywood.

In this groundbreaking new biography, award-winning film historian Patrick McGilligan offers a vivid and fascinating portrait of a true pioneer of American culture who was equal parts visionary, hustler, huckster, innovator, and raffish Barnum-like showman—and the first great African-American filmmaker.

About the Author

Patrick McGilligan is the author of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light; Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast; and George Cukor: A Double Life; and books on the lives of directors Nicholas Ray, Robert Altman, and Oscar Micheaux, and actors James Cagney, Jack Nicholson, and Clint Eastwood. He also edited the acclaimed five-volume Backstory series of interviews with Hollywood screenwriters and (with Paul Buhle), the definitive Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, not far from Kenosha, where Orson Welles was born.

Praise For…

“McGilligan deftly assembles the sterling research of scholars of early black filmmaking into an enormously moving and compelling account of a quixotic life defined by arduous toil and perpetual optimism.” — DGA Quarterly

“a well researched, passionately felt and endlessly fascinating look at a singular American life.” — Kirkus Reviews

“McGilligan has made this incredible, half-forgotten life newly available to us all.” — The Guardian

“An enormously moving and compelling account of a quixotic life defined by arduous toil and perpetual optimism.” — Directors Guild Association Quarterly

McGilligan does a fine job of reaffirming Micheaux’s significance beyond the appreciation of cineastes. — Publishers Weekly

“In the skilled hands of Patrick McGilligan, Oscar Micheaux’s life story bristles and takes flight.” — Pearl Bowser, author of Writing Himself into History: Oscar Micheaux, His Silent Films and His Audiences

“a lively, readable tale” — New York Times Book Review

Praise for Alfred Hitchcock: “Staggering… illuminating… The Master of Suspense finally gets and authoritative life.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred)

Praise for Alfred Hitchcock: “Enthralling, scholarly, and candid.” — Publishers Weekly

Praise for Alfred Hitchcock: “Magnificently exhaustive, absolutely definitive, marvelously magesterial…” — Los Angeles Times Book Review

Praise for Alfred Hitchcock: “A hugely satisfying portrait of the artist.” — Entertainment Weekly