Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only: The Life of America's First Black Filmmaker

by Patrick McGilligan

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060731403
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/17/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Patrick McGilligan is the author of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light; Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast; George Cukor: A Double Life; the life stories of the directors Nicholas Ray, Robert Altman, and Oscar Micheaux; and the biographies of the actors James Cagney, Jack Nicholson, and Clint Eastwood. He also edited the five-volume Backstory series of interviews with Hollywood screenwriters and (with Paul Buhle) Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

What People are Saying About This

Pearl Bowser

“In the skilled hands of Patrick McGilligan, Oscar Micheaux’s life story bristles and takes flight.”

Editorial Reviews

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

From the Publisher

a lively, readable tale

New York Times Book Review

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

Praise for Alfred Hitchcock: “Magnificently exhaustive, absolutely definitive, marvelously magesterial…

Los Angeles Times Book Review

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

In the skilled hands of Patrick McGilligan, Oscar Micheaux’s life story bristles and takes flight.

Pearl Bowser

Praise for Alfred Hitchcock: “A hugely satisfying portrait of the artist.

Entertainment Weekly

Praise for Alfred Hitchcock: “Magnificently exhaustive, absolutely definitive, marvelously magesterial…

Los Angeles Times Book Review