Live Fast, Die Young: Remembering the Short Life of James Dean

by John Gilmore

Overview

Live Fast, Die Young: Remembering the Short Life of James Dean is a first — revealing James Dean from the inside out by someone who knew him intimately. Author John Gilmore recalls his first meeting with Dean in New York, their fast friendship, their riding motorcycles together, and their sexual encounters with women, men and each other. Dean’s insights into his own Broadway success and the films that followed are revealed through Gilmore’s story as well as Dean’s feelings of hatred toward a disapproving father; his intimacy with his mother and their secret games that later led to Dean’s sexual confusion in Hollywood; Dean’s obsession with death; and, finally, the posthumous rise of the legend.
Confused and antagonized by the immediate celebrity that descended on him following the release of his first feature film, East of Eden, Dean chose to protect himself against Hollywood and the world by surrounding himself with a handful of “malcontent oddballs.” John Gilmore was among the privileged few. Gilmore says, “Jimmy was obsessed with riding the ‘black ship to hell,’ and for that quick time I was on board with him.”
Through letters, diaries, tape-recorded conversations with the actor, and private remembrances by those closest to him — including Rock Hudson, Sal Mineo, Elizabeth Taylor, Eartha Kitt, Natalie Wood and Sammy Davis, Jr. — Gilmore constructs a seldom-seen portrait of the star. Contains over fifty choice photos and the complete Coroner’s Report into Dean’s fatal car crash.
Gilmore succeeds at conveying the sources of Dean's vulnerability and his preoccupation with death, elements that fueled both Dean's screen persona and his personal life. — Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

BN ID:	2940013370104
Publisher:	Amok Books
Publication date:	08/08/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Described by the Sydney Morning Herald as the “quintessential L.A.
noir writer,” John Gilmore has been acclaimed internationally for his
hard-boiled true crime books, his literary fiction and Hollywood memoirs.
As one of today’s most controversial American writers, Gilmore’s
following spans the globe from Hong Kong to his native Hollywood. He
has traveled the road to fame in many guises: kid actor, stage and motion
picture player, knew James Dean and Marilyn Monroe; was a painter, poet,
screenwriter, low-budget director and novelist. After heading the writing
program at Antioch University, Gilmore taught, traveled, and lectured
extensively while producing an indelible mark in crime literature with
Severed: the True Story of the Black Dahlia, and with L.A. Despair:
A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times. Gilmore now lives in the
Hollywood Hills where he is at work on a novel, and another exploration into true crime—a memoir chronicle on the lives and death of Bonnie and Clyde.