Country music's award-winning and best-selling recording artist, Merle Haggard, brings us his long-awaited new autobiography, Merle Haggard's My House of Memories--a riveting account of Haggard's extremely turbulent and successful life. Picking up where his 1982 autobiography, Sing Me Back Home, left off, Haggard recounts his earliest childhood memories, revealing previously untold stories about his birth and troubled upbringing in a converted railroad boxcar. He recalls the innocence of the 1950s, when a boy could safely ride the rails with hobos and share their transient camps. He talks about his father's death when Merle was nine and how his childish disobedience soon erupted into full-blown delinquency. 
 In a thrilling narrative, he takes us on several high speed getaways from the California law and straight inside the state's homes for the criminally delinquent. On his nineteenth birthday, we follow him inside San Quentin and read a chilling account about a cellmate who begs Merle to join him in an escape that ultimately ends with the man's death. Haggard also recalls his befriending of Caryl Chessman, the notorious 1950s serial rapist, and the time they shared before Chessman's execution. 
 Having lived a life marked by violence, gambling, and drugs, Merle shares the lessons he learned and how he continues to pay for decades of reckless living. He discloses that after earning more than a hundred million dollars, he's virtually broke. Merle reflects on how he felt at that bittersweet hour seven years ago, as he stood at his wife's bedside during the delivery of their son--and was served bankruptcy papers. And he recalls his family's move into a house so decayed that cattle literally roamed inside. He still lives there, amid improvements, today.
 Haggard relives the painful memory of the death of his mother, who a year earlier, unbeknownst to him, had written her life story in longhand. He reveals his astonishment at learning of her 1906 covered-wagon journey at age four, from Arkansas to Oklahoma, and of how she had to live underground in an earthen dugout. Merle had never known of his mother's life in the Southwest and the fears and hardships she faced. As one of the industry's most respected artists, Merle Haggard still makes music for music's sake and does it with the enthusiasm of an apprentice. He plays several hours a day, every day, on and off the stage and speaks of the emotional salvation the eight notes of the music scale afford him.
 My House of Memories captures the triumph of the human spirit through the power of persistence, through the power of love he finally discovered during his fifth marriage, and through the unsurpassed the joy of reentering fatherhood at age fifty-four. It is an exciting and moving account of the tumultuous life of a songwriter, singer, guitarist, and arranger whose words have earned him international renown as the poet of the common man.

Merle Haggard's My House of Memories : For the Record

Carter, Tom

Haggard, Merle

Humor & Entertainment

HarperEntertainment

In this riveting personal story, the award-winning, bestselling recording artist takes you on a tour through his house of memories, offering a fascinating look inside his turbulent and successful life. Merle reveals previously untold stories about his birth and troubled upbringing in a converted railroad boxcar. He recalls the loss of his father when he was nine, and how his childish disobedience transformed into full-blown delinquency that landed him behind the cold walls of San Quentin. Having lived a Iife shaped by violence, gambling, and drugs, he shares the lessons he learned and how he continues to pay for decades of reckless living. He pays tribute to his mother, and relives the painful memory of her death. And he talks about the music he loves, and how it has ultimately defined the man he is.

Merle Haggard's My House of Memories: For the Record

In this riveting personal story, award-winning, bestselling country music recording artist Merle Haggard takes you on a tour through his house of memories, offering a fascinating look inside his turbulent yet successful life. Merle reveals the true stories about his birth and troubled upbringing in a converted railroad boxcar. He recalls the loss of his father when he was nine, after which his childhood disobedience transformed into full-blown delinquency that eventually landed him behind the cold walls of San Quentin. He gives tribute to his mother and relives the painful memory of her death. He shares the lessons he learned from a life shaped by violence, gambling, and drugs, never shying away from the fact that he continues to pay for decades of reckless living. And he talks about the music he loveshow, ultimately, it has defined the man he is.

My House of Memories: An Autobiography

It Books

Merle Haggard is known as "the poet of the common man." His songs are some of the most important and influential in the history of country music, on par with the likes of those by Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams. Through a life as tumultuous as his music, scarred by struggles with inner demons, incarceration and addiction - all of which he has brutally and directly confronted through his lyrics - Haggard has emerged with an American songbook that captures the rough side of life with an unblinking eye gazing on the workings of the human heart. This collection comes on the heels of his acclaimed album If I Could Only Fly, his first new studio album in four years, which finds the former wildman coping with aging, taking on familial responsibilities, and learning to appreciate the wonders of home life versus the pitfalls of the highway. Haggard's lyrics demonstrate why this acclaimed member of the Country Music Hall of Fame is a legend who will live forever.

Merle Haggard - The Lyrics

Arts & Photography

Music

HAL LEONARD CORPORATION

The country musician describes his difficult childhood, his early life of crime and time in jail, and the ups and downs of the country music business.

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

HarperAudio

Sing Me Back Home

Recounts Haggard's rise to fame from his Dust Bowl beginnings through his detour to San Quentin and gives a scathing, behind-the-scenes account of the alcohol, drugs, sex, and money that makes the country-western world spin

Times Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Haggard, Merle. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Haggard, Merle

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Haggard, Merle. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Merle Haggard's My House of Memories : For the Record

Merle Haggard's My House of Memories: For the Record

My House of Memories: An Autobiography

Merle Haggard - The Lyrics

Merle Haggard's My House of Memories : For the Record

Sing Me Back Home