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

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.

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. 

Product details

• Authors: Patrick McGilligan
• Publisher: Harper Perennial USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 17.06.2008
• EAN: 9780060731403
• ISBN: 978-0-06-073140-3
• No. of pages: 432
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 28 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Humanities, art, music > Art > Photography, film, video, TV; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Entertainment & Performing Arts, PERFORMING ARTS: Film & Video / Direction & Production, PERFORMING ARTS: Film & Video / History & Criticism, FILM STUDIES: HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Women, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Music, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Sports, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Political, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Fashion, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Culinary