Recommended Books

General -- If you're interested in the civil rights movement and the life and death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., you may want to read At the River I Stand: Memphis, the 1968 Strike and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Carlson Publishing, 1989), by Joan Turner Beifuss. This is a rather weighty tome.

Fiction -- John Grisham's novels The Firm (Doubleday, 1991), The Client (Doubleday, 1993), and The Rainmaker (Doubleday, 1995) provide a bit of Memphis flavor and suspenseful entertainment. All three of these books are set amid the Memphis legal world and have been made into big-budget movies.

Music -- A lot has been written about the blues over the years, and consequently a lot has been written about Memphis and the nearby Mississippi Delta. Rhythm Oil: A Journey Through the Music of the American South (Vintage, 1993), by Stanley Booth, is a collection of articles that have appeared in other publications. Over the years, Booth has traveled the world in pursuit of stories on the blues and interviews with famous blues musicians. The Land Where the Blues Began (Pantheon Books, 1993), by Alan Lomax, is a thick but very readable account of the Mississippi Delta's blues music. The book includes plenty of interviews and song lyrics. Beale Street is where the blues finally became a force in the world of American music, and in Beale Black and Blue (Louisiana State University Press, 1981) Margaret McKee and Fred Chisenhall tell the history of Beale Street and the people who made it famous.

One of those Beale Street figures was B.B. King, the reigning king of the blues. Charles Sawyer's The Arrival of B. B. King (Da Capo Press, 1980), though a bit dated, tells the story of the Beale Street "Blues Boy." Woman with a Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues (Da Capo Press, 1992), by Paul and Beth Garon, is a biography of another of Beale Street's early blues singers.

In the early 1950s, Sun Studio in Memphis recorded some of the world's first rock-'n'-roll music. Among the artists to record here were Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley. Great Balls of Fire (Mandarin Paperbacks, 1989), by Myra Lewis with Murray Silver, is a biography of Jerry Lee Lewis, the rocker whose career died when he married his 13-year-old cousin. Dark Star: The Roy Orbison Story (Carol Publishing Group, 1990), by Ellis Amburn, is a biography of the enigmatic Orbison. The book is drawn from interviews with Orbison's friends and family and includes a lot on the early days at Sun Studio.

For the best overviews of Memphis music and its roots, look for the reprint of Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music (Back Bay Books, 1999). I also urge you to read any books by one of Memphis' best music historians, Robert Gordon. Two of his most acclaimed works are It Came from Memphis (Faber & Faber, 1996) and the recent biography of Mississippi blues great McKinley Morganfield: Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters (Little, Brown and Co., 2002).

For an in-depth history of a Memphis record label that spawned hits by the likes of Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Isaac Hayes, and Sam & Dave, start with Rob Bowmann's Soulsville USA: The Story of Stax Records (Schirmer Books, 2003).

Elvis -- There has probably been more written about Elvis Presley (and I don't just mean in the tabloids) than about any other rock star in history. Currently, Peter Guralnick is considered to be the definitive biographer of Elvis. His Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley (Little, Brown and Company, 1994) documents the star's early life (it covers his life up to 1958), while Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (Little, Brown and Company, 1998) picks up where the first tome left off, and tracks the King's sad later years. Other good, basic biographies include Jerry Hopkins's two books Elvis: A Biography (Warner Books, 1971) and Elvis: The Final Years (Playboy Books, 1981). For those who are curious what it was like to be Mrs. Elvis, there's Elvis and Me (Berkley Books, 1986), by Priscilla Presley. Much controversy surrounded the death of Elvis; his adoring fans were loath to learn that the king was a drug addict. In The Death of Elvis: What Really Happened (Delacorte Press, 1991), authors Charles C. Thompson II and James P. Cole dig deep into the cause of Elvis's death and the putative cover-up. However, two of the most controversial Elvis books have been Albert Goldman's Elvis (Avon, 1981), which exposed some of Elvis's kinkier habits, and Elvis: What Happened? (World News Corporation, 1977), by Red West, Sonny West, and Dave Hebler as told to Steve Dunleavy, a sleazy exposé of Elvis's drug and sex habits. In the recent That's Alright, Elvis (Schirmer Books, 1997), by Scotty Moore (as told to James Dickerson), the last surviving member of Elvis's first trio, the early days of Elvis and rock 'n' roll are the subject.

For a more tender novella about the man and his life, look no further than Bobbie Ann Mason's simply titled Elvis (Viking Books, 2002).