Product Description

In 1956, a twenty-one-year-old Elvis Presley was at the beginning of his remarkable and unparalleled career and photographer Alfred Wertheimer was asked by Presley’s new label, RCA Victor, to photograph the rising star. With unimpeded access to the young performer, Wertheimer was able to capture the unguarded and everyday moments in Elvis' life during that crucial year, a year that took him from Tupelo, Mississippi to the silver screen, and to the verge of international stardom and his crowning as "The King of Rock 'n' Roll.” As Alfred Wertheimer photographed Elvis during 1956, and again in 1958, he created classic images that are spontaneous, unrehearsed and completely without artifice.
Wertheimer’s photographs of Elvis are extraordinary and he appears almost ethereal, whether reading a newspaper while waiting for a cab, or washing his hands during one of his many train trips. After 1958 and Elvis’ induction into the army, the world seemingly forgot about Wertheimer’s magical photographs- for nineteen years- until Aug 16, 1977, the day Elvis died and Time Magazine called. “The phone hasn’t really stopped ringing in the last thirty years,” observes Wertheimer.
Many of the photographs in this visual treasury are previously unpublished and some have become almost as famous as the man himself.
Limited edition features: 1,500 copies, comes in a clamshell box with a signed photograph and contact sheet, clothbound portfolio case containing four limited edition photographic prints (11 x 14), and an exclusive edition of Elvis Ships Out (a 48 page, cloth bound, 8 x 10, keepsake archive of Elvis' stint in the US Army).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1395506 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-31
• Released on: 2006-10-31
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

About the Author
Alfred Wertheimer was born in Germany in 1930, came to America and settled in Brooklyn as a young boy. He took an early interest in architecture and design, which led him to Cooper Union, from which he graduated in 1951. In the spring of 1956, a series of commercial assignments for RCA Records led to a shoot of a newly signed singer named Elvis Presley. Instantly impressed, Wertheimer devoted four months of his own time to intensely shadow the young star. The result would be the most intimate and candid look at the future legend ever recorded.
Peter Guralnick is an award-winning biographer of Elvis Presley and author of Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love. A music critic, screenwriter, and historian of American popular music, he is also the author of Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke.

Customer Reviews

THE Best Elvis Book
If you only have one Elvis book in your library, or one photography book, let it be "Elvis at 21"...you will never buy a more sumptuous volume. The printing of the images is phenomenal, with wonderful use of gatefolds. It is one of the very few art books I've bought that I didn't balk at the retail price.

Wertheimer's photographs are collectively an artifact of our cultural history. It's amazing to see so many of them gathered together and in sequence. A much smaller selection of this body of work was published about 20 years ago as "Elvis '56"--this was my one-book-in-the-library, even back when I only had a photocopied edition. With this expansion, a whole new king is crowned.

2007 is of course the 30th anniversary of the King's passing. The world should expect a vast onslaught of new and revised offerings on the man. "Elvis at 21" throws down an early gauntlet so firmly, the other publishers might just as well crawl back into their niches.

Buy it, and wear a bib so you don't ruin the pages with your drool.

This is the only one to buy!
This is the definitive version of all the Wertheimer photo books. This is the only one to own. The photos are famous and now the book should be also. A great one for any Elvis fan.

Elvis at 21
Alfred Wertheimer's photos is this book are FANTASTIC! It is a rare treat to be able to see Elvis at this stage in his life... when he was doing what he loved while still able to go in to restaurants, walk the streets, etc. and be recognized and appreciated by people around him, without being mobbed. What a wonderful time to cherish in these photographs.