Last Train to Memphis

Critical Praise

"Unrivaled account of Elvis as he walks the path between heaven and nature in an America that was wide open, when anything was possible, not the white washed golden calf but the incendiary musical firebrand loner who conquered the western world, he steps from the pages, you can feel him breathe, this book cancels out all the others."
-Bob Dylan

"#1 book of the year."
-Entertainment Weekly

"Elvis steps from the pages, you can feel him breathe, this book cancels out all others."
-Bob Dylan

"The first great rock-and-roll biography."
-Boston Phoenix

"A masterpiece."
-Philadelphia Inquirer

"Even the minor revelations are positively spellbinding…. Mr. Guralnick's narrative is rendered with an intimate, restrained intensity eerily reminiscent of the plaintive tone of Presley's ballads, that tremulous yearning of America itself…. Profound and moving … a triumph of biographical art."
- New York Times Book Review

"Supple and altogether splendid…. It is the particular and spectacular achievement of Las Train to Memphis that it holds both the making of the history and the begging of the myth in firm, simple and compassionate focus. … Guralnick writes evocatively, empathetically…. He paints this world with perspective, respect and great decency; it is one of the book's triumphs"
-Time

"Last Train is a story that crackles and breathes, that brings to life the people, neighborhoods, schools, homes, churches, picnics, recording studios, and clubs that were part of Presley's life. It has the depth of a good history and the riches of literature."
-Detroit Free Press

"A job of cultural reclamation. … Guralnick treats the Southern experience with vast sensitivity and respect. Indeed, Last Train to Memphis is moving in the way certain old-fashioned naturalistic novels are…. The definitive book on the subject."
-The Nation

"The narrative is so clear that, at almost every point, it sets associative ripples flowing…. No better book on Elvis, and few better books on the 50s exist.
-San Jose Mercury News Books

"As with his other writings on American music, Peter Guralnick sends you rushing back to the recordings with fresh ears. This is the finest compliment that I can pay someone writing about music."
-Elvis Costello

"Last Train to Memphis is more … than a book about Elvis Presley. It is a book about America, race relations, the music business, the present, the future, and, often, the jealous past…. But most of all it is about magic."
-LA Weekly

"Guralnick has written a new standard biography…. Like an incarnation of Whitman's philosophy, the Elvis Presley Peter Guralnick has given us contains multitudes…. Extraordinary."
-Dave Marsh