James Dean, American Icon: American Icon

by David Dalton and Ron Cayen

Book Overview

A photographic tribute to the legendary young actor features a selection of childhood photographs, love letters, backstage and on-screen stills, and other memorabilia. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031243958X
• ISBN13: 9780312439583
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 285 Pages
• Weight: 3.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Wealth of Photos, Magazine Spreads & Documents on an American Icon

From back cover: "As Hollywood's last great idol and the original rebel without a cause, James Dean was the model for rock 'n' roll's all-American delinquent and solitary dreamer. Remarkably, only 'East of Eden' had been released at the time of Jimmy's death, but his fatal crash at age 24 made him a star of the magnitude of Marilyn, Brando, Garbo, and Gable and his 'live-fast-die-young-have-a-beautiful-corpse' philosophy turned his life into the stuff of legend. James Dean fused the ingenuousness of the Indiana farm boy, the calculated cool of the Beat hipster and the customized slouch of the street punk into an attitude that you could literally put on. It was the first clear outline of what came to be known as the counterculture. James Dean is the Sphinx of Youth to whom every generation poses its riddles. In 'American Icon', David Dalton addresses the mystery of Dean's enduring myth and offers radical assessments of 'East of Eden,' 'Rebel Without a Cause,' and 'Giant.' Exhaustive research by photo editor Ron Cayen yielded over 300 color and black and white photos - many recently discovered - to make this lavishly illustrated book the ultimate tribute to a 20th century American icon whose face has become as familiar as that of Mickey Mouse, Mao, or Mick Jagger. Assembled here for the first time is an eye-popping collection of Technicolor posters, lurid movie magazine spreads, Dean-on-bongos album covers, comic book biographies, never-before-printed love letters and a wealth of exotic Deanabilia."

terrific book, great photos, nicely writte4n

great book!!! fun read, lots of terrific unique BIG pictures....several two page shots....can make a fan out of anybody.

The ultimate James Dean book.

Beautiful picturs, 45-year-old articles, and movie logo's are the highlight of this quentissential James Dean book. By far it is one of the best I have ever read, while it's not really a biography, it tells of Deans childhood, the relation and impact made by the characters Dean played and the legacy he left to us. If there was only one book on Jimmy I could have, this would be it. After all this time this book shows that James dean has not lost his appeal. And I'm pretty sure, Jimmy will be even bigger in 2005 when he receaves the honerary academy award, this book will occupy me until then.

lots of great pics

This James Dean book is Awesome, it has sooo many great photos to look at I looked at this book for hours! james Dean is the best actor ever!!!!! this book gives all the information and pictures for his whole life's story, its great, you should buy it right away if you want to know and see James Dean!

Great if you're looking for pictures!

This is perhaps the best Dean book out there for those of us that are interested in the photographs. Some hard to find and exclusive pics are in this one. Keep in mind it's not a biography if that is what you're looking for, but in terms of photos, this one can not be beat!