Desert Hawk Books

 

Will Rogers
A Biography

Ben Yagoda

 

456 pages
85 B&W Illustrations
6.125" x 9.25"
Paperback

Quantity:   $18.95 & S/H  

 

Will Rogers was a true American icon. His newspaper column was read daily by 40 million people, and as radio entertainer, lecturer, movie star, and homespun sage, he was one of our most popular entertainers.

"Rogers embodied old-time values, yet he 'opportunistically' embraced the new mass-culture media. Apostle of decency, he headlined in the 'all-but-pornographic' Ziegfeld Follies. Yagoda… has written the fullest biography of this American icon, a resonant portrait imbued with Rogers' irreverent spirit, yet attuned to both the strengths and limitations of his commonsense, crackerbarrel world view."-Publishers Weekly

"Someone has finally written a good biography of Will Rogers. . . . It's a delight to be reminded that political humor without meanness of spirit is not only possible, but indeed is a great American tradition. Politicians and all who labor with them will relish Ben Yagoda's Will Rogers, but so will those who enjoy show biz tidbits and vaudeville history"-New York Times Book Review

"[A] superbly researched biography of Will Rogers."-Los Angeles Times "Yagoda offers an utterly thorough, brilliant taking-apart of the unique Rogers persona… So immediate you can scratch a match on his boot sole."-Kirkus Reviews

Ben Yagoda is Associate Professor of English and Journalism at the University of Delaware. He is the co-editor of The Art of Fact: A Historical Anthology of Literary Journalism and is the author of a forthcoming history of The New Yorker.