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The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero
Random House
June 2012
On Sale: June 12, 2012
432 pages ISBN: 1400068665 EAN: 9781400068661 Kindle: B005NKGG50 Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction History
Seventy-five years after he came to life, Superman remains
one of America’s most adored and enduring heroes. Now Larry
Tye, the prize-winning journalist and New York Times
bestselling author of Satchel, has written the first
full-fledged history not just of the Man of Steel but of the
creators, designers, owners, and performers who made him the
icon he is today.
Legions of fans from Boston to Buenos Aires can recite the
story of the child born Kal-El, scion of the doomed planet
Krypton, who was rocketed to Earth as an infant, raised by
humble Kansas farmers, and rechristened Clark Kent. Known to
law-abiders and evildoers alike as Superman, he was destined
to become the invincible champion of all that is good and
just—and a star in every medium from comic books and comic
strips to radio, TV, and film.
But behind the high-flying legend lies a true-to-life saga
every bit as compelling, one that begins not in the far
reaches of outer space but in the middle of America’s
heartland. During the depths of the Great Depression, Jerry
Siegel was a shy, awkward teenager in Cleveland. Raised on
adventure tales and robbed of his father at a young age,
Jerry dreamed of a hero for a boy and a world that
desperately needed one. Together with neighborhood chum and
kindred spirit Joe Shuster, young Siegel conjured a
human-sized god who was everything his creators yearned to
be: handsome, stalwart, and brave, able to protect the
innocent, punish the wicked, save the day, and win the girl.
It was on Superman’s muscle-bound back that the comic book
and the very idea of the superhero took flight.
Tye chronicles the adventures of the men and women who kept
Siegel and Shuster’s “Man of Tomorrow” aloft and vitally
alive through seven decades and counting. Here are the savvy
publishers and visionary writers and artists of comics’
Golden Age who ushered the red-and-blue-clad titan through
changing eras and evolving incarnations; and the
actors—including George Reeves and Christopher Reeve—who
brought the Man of Steel to life on screen, only to succumb
themselves to all-too-human tragedy in the mortal world.
Here too is the poignant and compelling history of Siegel
and Shuster’s lifelong struggle for the recognition and
rewards rightly due to the architects of a genuine cultural
phenomenon.
From two-fisted crimebuster to über-patriot, social crusader
to spiritual savior, Superman—perhaps like no other mythical
character before or since—has evolved in a way that offers a
Rorschach test of his times and our aspirations. In this
deftly realized appreciation, Larry Tye reveals a portrait
of America over seventy years through the lens of that
otherworldly hero who continues to embody our best selves.
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