Superman

Seventy-fiveyears after he came to life, Superman remains one of America's most adored andenduring heroes. Now Larry Tye, the prize-winning journalist and New YorkTimes bestselling author of Satchel, has written the firstfull-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 childborn Kal-El, scion of the doomed planet Krypton, who was rocketed to Earth asan infant, raised by humble Kansas farmers, and rechristened Clark Kent. Knownto law-abiders and evildoers alike as Superman, he was destined to become theinvincible champion of all that is good and just-and a star in every mediumfrom comic books and comic strips to radio, TV, and film.

But behind the high-flying legend lies a true-to-life saga every bit ascompelling, one that begins not in the far reaches of outer space but in themiddle of America's heartland. During the depths of the Great Depression, JerrySiegel was a shy, awkward teenager in Cleveland. Raised on adventure tales androbbed of his father at a young age, Jerry dreamed of a hero for a boy and aworld that desperately needed one. Together with neighborhood chum and kindredspirit Joe Shuster, young Siegel conjured a human-sized god who was everythinghis creators yearned to be: handsome, stalwart, and brave, able to protect theinnocent, punish the wicked, save the day, and win the girl. It was onSuperman's muscle-bound back that the comic book and the very idea of thesuperhero took flight.

Tye chronicles the adventures of the men and women who kept Siegel andShuster's "Man of Tomorrow" aloft and vitally alive through seven decades andcounting. Here are the savvy publishers and visionary writers and artists ofcomics' Golden Age who ushered the red-and-blue-clad titan through changingeras and evolving incarnations; and the actors-including George Reeves andChristopher Reeve-who brought the Man of Steel to life on screen, only tosuccumb themselves to all-too-human tragedy in the mortal world. Here too isthe poignant and compelling history of Siegel and Shuster's lifelong strugglefor the recognition and rewards rightly due to the architects of a genuinecultural phenomenon.

From two-fisted crimebuster to über-patriot, social crusader to spiritualsavior, Superman-perhaps like no other mythical character before or since-hasevolved 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 Americaover seventy years through the lens of that otherworldly hero who continues toembody our best selves.

LarryTye was anaward-winning journalist at The Boston Globe and a Nieman Fellow atHarvard University. A lifelong Superman fan, Tye now runs a Boston-basedtraining program for medical journalists. He is the author of the New YorkTimes bestseller Satchel as well as The Father of Spin, HomeLands, and Rising from the Rails, and co-author, with Kitty Dukakis,of Shock. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, and is currently writinga biography of Robert F. Kennedy.

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Advancepraise for Superman

"Action and adventure . . . comedy . . . tragedy . . . mythology . . . LarryTye captures it all! As complete a history of the Man of Steel as everpublished, this book is a deeply documented yet anecdotally told tale thattransports us from the bedroom of a daydreaming teenager in 1930's Cleveland,Ohio, to the collapsing towers of the planet Krypton, from the wheatfields ofmiddle America to the hearts of every American, with a story that isentertaining, revealing, and shocking, yet crammed with historical information.If you liked reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, waittill you read Larry Tye's true story behind it all!"-Michael Uslan, author of TheBoy Who Loved Batman and executive producer of seven Batman movies

"I only wish I had the good fortune of reading Larry Tye's book before I made Superman,the problem being that if I had, then the motion picture part of Superman'shistory would not have been in Mr. Tye's book. Having said that, the reason Ifound Tye's book incredibly informative is his sense of my bible in making thefilm-that is, verisimilitude. Reality overcame everything."-Richard Donner,director of Superman