Abraham Riesman

Overture : what it takes -- Ambition and its discontents. Escape at any cost (To 1939) -- Means of ascent (1939-1945) -- Quiet desperation (1945-1961) -- Mister Marvel. What price victory? (1961-1966) -- Lonely at the top (1966-1972) -- Chafing in the C-suite (1972-1980) -- Lost in Hollywood (1980-1998) -- Get rich quick. The great experiment (1998-2001) -- Spotlight and shadow (2001-2017) -- Disintegration (2017-2018).

True Believer: the Rise and Fall of Stan Lee

“Riveting, essential reading.” —Rick Perlstein, author of Reaganland The definitive biography of Vince McMahon, former WWE chairman and CEO, charts his rise from rural poverty to the throne of one of the world’s most influential media empires—and features never-before-seen research and exclusive interviews with more than 150 people who witnessed, aided, and suffered from his ascent. Even if you’ve never watched a minute of professional wrestling, you are living in Vince McMahon’s world. In his four decades as the defining figure of American pro wrestling, McMahon was the man behind Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, John Cena, Dave Bautista, Bret “The Hitman” Hart, and Hulk Hogan, to name just a few of the mega-stars who owe him their careers. For more than twenty-five years, he has also been a performer in his own show, acting as the diabolical “Mr. McMahon”—a figure who may have more in common with the real Vince than he would care to admit. Just as importantly, McMahon is one of Donald Trump’s closest friends—and Trump’s experiences as a performer in McMahon’s programming were, in many ways, a dress rehearsal for the 45th President’s campaigns and presidency. McMahon and his wife, Linda, are major Republican donors. Linda was in Trump’s cabinet. McMahon makes deals with the Saudi government worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And for generations of people who have watched wrestling, he has been a defining cultural force. Accessible to anyone, regardless of wrestling knowledge, Ringmaster is an unauthorized, independent, investigative chronicle of Vince McMahon’s origins and rise to supreme power. It is built on exclusive interviews with more than 150 people, from McMahon’s childhood friends to those who accuse him of destroying their lives. Far more than just an athletics or entertainment biography, Ringmaster uses Vince’s story as a new lens for understanding the contemporary American apocalypse.

Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America

Ringmaster

The definitive, revelatory biography of Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee, a writer and entrepreneur who reshaped global pop culture--at a steep personal cost "A biography that reads like a thriller or a whodunit . . . scrupulously honest, deeply damning, and sometimes even heartbreaking."--Neil Gaiman Stan Lee was one of the most famous and beloved entertainers to emerge from the twentieth century. He served as head editor of Marvel Comics for three decades and, in that time, became known as the creator of more pieces of internationally recognizable intellectual property than nearly anyone: Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, Black Panther, the Incredible Hulk . . . the list goes on. His carnival-barker marketing prowess helped save the comic-book industry and superhero fiction. His cameos in Marvel movies have charmed billions. When he died in 2018, grief poured in from around the world, further cementing his legacy. But what if Stan Lee wasn't who he said he was? To craft the definitive biography of Lee, Abraham Riesman conducted more than 150 interviews and investigated thousands of pages of private documents, turning up never-before-published revelations about Lee's life and work. True Believer tackles tough questions: Did Lee actually create the characters he gained fame for creating? Was he complicit in millions of dollars' worth of fraud in his post-Marvel life? Which members of the cavalcade of grifters who surrounded him were most responsible for the misery of his final days? And, above all, what drove this man to achieve so much yet always boast of more?

Nato nel 1922, Stan Lee è stato a capo della Marvel per trent'anni, un'era durante la quale ha lanciato supereroi che ancora oggi sono celebri in ogni angolo del pianeta: Spider-Man, gli Avengers, gli X-Men, Black Panther, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor... Grazie al suo genio imprenditoriale, queste creazioni hanno alimentato la fantasia di generazioni di lettori e hanno ridisegnato il mercato editoriale, cinematografico, televisivo e videoludico degli ultimi decenni. Dietro i successi di Lee, però, si nascondono le annose dispute con gli autori ai quali ha sottratto idee e intuizioni, dalla contesa con Steve Ditko sulla creazione di Spider-Man a quella con Jack Kirby su molti personaggi chiave nell'universo Marvel. Senza contare iniziative fallimentari e fraudolente come Stan Lee Media e POW! Entertainment o i misteriosi ultimi anni della sua vita, durante i quali - rimasto vedovo e solo - sarebbe stato manipolato da una serie di personaggi a dir poco discutibili. In questa avvincente biografia, la giornalista Abraham Josephine Riesman rivela i retroscena di un'esistenza incredibile e piena di zone d'ombra, quella di un titano della cultura pop, l'uomo che ha contribuito a creare (e a mettere a rischio) uno dei più grandi e redditizi imperi multimediali nella storia dell'intrattenimento: il mondo di supereroi alla base del Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Abraham Riesman

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