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A Storied Singer Frank Sinatra as Literary Conceit
Gilbert L. Gigliotti
ISBN: 0-313-30973-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-30973-1
192 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 5/30/2002
List Price: $102.95 (UK Sterling Price: £71.95)
Discount Price: $51.48 Sale Price for U.S. Customers Only. Save 50%. Ends 12/31/2009.
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description: Frank Sinatra forever altered American art and culture. His life and work is mythified in countless books and essays. This book offers a much-needed fresh approach to The Chairman of the Board. Artists from all varieties of media have used Sinatra to create their own works and, in many cases, their own Sinatras. Sinatra's legacy is not confined to the music he created—his shadow, his aura, and his mere existence helped to inform the lives and works of generations. Gigliotti examines how genre and literary fiction, lyric and satiric poetry, rock and folk music, and even domestic drama have conjured and symbolically employed the legendary singer.

Each of the eleven chapters of A Storied Singer details a different use of Sinatra. Subjects include the lyrics of Sammy Cahn, recent novels such as The Death of Frank Sinatra, and the many songs that are about or mention Old Blue Eyes. Gigliotti also examines Sinatra as seen through international eyes, from British songwriters and Spanish novelists to American expatriates and Israeli filmmakers, providing an unusual and fascinating look at a major American figure.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
    Prologue: The Man in Many Looking Glasses: From an Obscene Gerund to a Pas de Deux
    Self-portraits
    "Come [Fly, Dance, and Waltz with] Us on Equal Terms": The Whitmanesque Sinatra of Sammy Cahn
    The Colors of Ava: Tone Poems of Color and the Painful Measure of Sinatra's Passions
    The Composition of Celebrity: Sinatra as Text in the Liner Notes of Stan Cornyn
    Left Standing at Watertown Station: The Chairman of the Board in the Time of Woodstock
    Strolling Among the Stars: Gordon Jenkins' Reflections on Frank's Future
    'Sad-eyed Sinatras' in Song and Story
    "Will You Be My Music": Sinatra in Popular Song from the '40s to a New Millennium
    The Universal Tongue: Language and Image in Raul Nunez's Sinatra
    "There'll Be No Future without Him": The Voice Versus the Emerging Monster in Playing Sinatra
    "The Voice" in the Desert: A Quartet of Frank Revelations
    Tale of Two Cities: Sinatra as Genius Hobokenesis and Vegas Incarnate
    "Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter": Blaming the Oyster in Sinatraland
    Epilogue: The Sinatriad: The Unwritten American Epic
    Appendices
    Works Cited
    Index
About the Author: GILBERT L. GIGLIOTTI is Associate Professor and Assistant Chairman in the Department of English at Central Connecticut State University, where he teaches an annual course in the literature of Sinatra. He also hosts a weekly Sinatra program on the campus radio station, and local organizations frequently invite him to speak about the singer.
LCC Class: 782
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