Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia

A monumental oral biography, Elvis Aaron Presley is the first book to capture Elvis Presley - the man and the phenomenon - in his full complexity. Elvis Aaron Presley is the product of more than five years of interviews with the three individuals who knew him best: Billy Smith - Elvis's first cousin and the person Elvis reputedly loved most after his own mother; the man who slept at the foot of Elvis's bed during his bouts of horrific nightmares; and, at the end, one of the few who continued to see the pop icon on a daily basis. Marty Lacker - the best man at Elvis's wedding and foreman of the famed "Memphis Mafia," the handpicked group of gatekeepers and confidants who formed Presley's entourage. Lamar Fike - decades-long member of the "Memphis Mafia"; touring crew member; and the man who accompanied Elvis to his army posting in Germany. Together, these three were with Elvis from his teens to his last day on earth, and the story they have to tell - most of it never before on the record - is as complete a psychological portrait of the pop icon as we're ever likely to get.

Nash, Alanna

Smith, Billy

Lacker, Marty

Fike, Lamar

Humor & Entertainment

Harpercollins

When NBC's first anchorwoman, Jessica Savitch, died at age 36 in a mysterious death-by-drowning car accident it made national headlines. Savitch was a living advertisement for the American dream--beautiful, smart, and successful in the competitive news business. But she was also a woman with secrets. Major motion picture release from Disney in December. Photos. Reissue.

Golden Girl : The Story of Jessica Savitch

Nash, Alanna K.

Based on in-depth interviews with Presley's cousin Billy Smith, his best man Marty Lacker, and touring crew member Lamar Fike, a detailed portrait of Elvis covers his teen years through the final days of his life. Reprint.

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

[Alanna] Nash belongs in the pantheon of great music writers, and [Baby, Let’s Play House] is a fascinating study.” —Rosanne Cash 
Just in time for Elvis Presley’s would-be 75th birthday comes a new book by Elvis expert, journalist, and Country Music Association Media Achievement Award winner Alanna Nash. Called "by far the best study of Presley I have ever read. . . Impressively researched written—and felt" by New York Times bestselling author Philip Norman (author of John Lennon and Shout!) and “the most entertaining Elvis book ever” by New York Times bestselling author Jimmy McDonough (Shakey: Neil Young's Biography), Baby, Let’s Play House is the first-ever Elvis book to focus solely on his complex relationships with women, including celebrities such as Ann-Margret, Linda Thompson, Mary Ann Mobley, Cher, Raquel Welch, Barbara Eden, and Cybill Shepherd. Featuring dozens of exclusive interviews and scores of never-before-seen photos, Baby, Let’s Play House is a must-have collector’s item for fans of The King everywhere.

Baby, Let's Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

It Books

Thirty-three years after his death, Elvis Presley's extraordinary physical appeal, timeless music, and sexual charisma continue to captivate, titillate, and excite. Though hundreds of books have been written about the King, no book has solely explored his relationships with women and how they influenced his music and life . . . until now. 
Based largely on exclusive interviews with the many women who knew him in various roles—lover, sweetheart, friend, costar, and family member—Baby, Let's Play House presents Elvis in a new light: as a charming but wounded Lothario who bedded scores of women but seemed unable to maintain a lasting romantic relationship. While fully exploring the most famous romantic idol of the twentieth century, award-winning veteran music journalist Alanna Nash pulls back the covers on what Elvis really wanted in a woman and was tragically never able to find.

Journalist Nash has expanded her earlier biographer of singer Dolly Parton to include the past two decades of her remarkable career, including several Grammy wins and an Oscar nomination, plus the return to her musical roots with her past two albums.

Dolly

BERKLEY

Gathers interviews with Chet Atkins, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, the Judds, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Ricky Skaggs, and Tammy Wynette

Behind Closed Doors

Music

KNOPF

In The Colonel, Alanna Nash, the author of Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch, explores in depth the amazing story of Colonel Tom Parker, the man behind the legend and the myth of Elvis Presley. The result is a book that reads like the most riveting of real-life detective stories -- one that will completely change your view of Presley's life, success, and death.
While scores of books have been written about Elvis Presley, this is the first meticulously researched biography of Tom Parker written by someone who knew him personally. And for anyone truly interested in the performer many consider the greatest and most influential of the twentieth century, it is impossible to understand how Elvis came to be such a phenomenon without examining the life and mind of Parker, the man who virtually controlled Elvis's every move.
Alanna Nash has been covering the story of Elvis Presley and Colonel Tom Parker since the day of Presley's funeral in Memphis, Tennessee. She was the first journalist allowed to view Presley's body, a compelling and surprising sight. But the profile of Parker attending the funeral in a Hawaiian shirt and a baseball cap was even stranger, and led her to investigate the man behind the myth.
It has been known for twenty years that Thomas Andrew Parker was, in fact, born in Holland as Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk. But Nash has dug much deeper and, in a masterpiece of reporting, unearthed never-before-seen documents, including Parker's army records and psychiatric evaluations, and the original police report of an unsolved murder case in Holland that lies at the heart of the Parker mystery. In the process of weighing the evidence, she answers the biggest riddle in the history of the music industry, as it becomes clear that every move Parker made in the handling of Elvis Presley -- from why he never allowed Elvis to perform in Europe, to why he didn't halt Elvis's drug use, to why he put him in so many mediocre movies, and even the Colonel's direction of Presley's army career -- was designed to protect Parker's own secrets. 
Filled with startling new material, her book challenges even the most familiar precepts of the Presley saga -- everything we presumed about Parker's handling of the world's most famous entertainer must now be reevaluated in the light of information Nash reveals about Parker, who cared little for Presley beyond what the singer could do to bolster the Colonel's precarious position as an illegal alien.
Elvis Presley, as one of Parker's unwitting victims, paid a major price for the Colonel's past and his overwhelming need to be more important than his client. As a result, Presley was never allowed to reach his potential and died in drug-induced frustration over his stunted and mismanaged career.
In this astonishing, impeccably written, and vastly entertaining book, Nash proves that the only figure in American popular culture as fascinating as Elvis Presley is Colonel Tom Parker, the man who shaped Elvis, who in turn helped shape us.

The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley

Simon&Schuster

Journalist Nash has expanded her earlier biographer of singer Dolly Parton to include the past two decades of her remarkable career, including several Grammy wins and an Oscar nomination, plus the return to her musical roots with her past two albums.

Dolly: The Biography

Cooper Square Press

Interviews with 27 country stars reveal the range of personalities and viewpoints that make up today's country music scene. Journalist Alanna Nash speaks in candid interviews with performers about Nashville's music industry, changes in the country audience over the past thirty years, and their own releationships to their music. Nash's interviews showcase the diversity of the performers (from college-educated professionals to ex-convicts) and their audiences. Interviewees include Tammy Wynette, Merle Haggard, Brenda Lee, Reba McEntire, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Conway Twitty, Naomi and Wynonna Judd, Bill Monroe, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Hank Williams Jr., Chet Atkins, and Willie Nelson.

Behind Closed Doors: Talking with the Legends of Country Music

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

Books by Nash, Alanna

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

Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia

Golden Girl : The Story of Jessica Savitch

Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia

Baby, Let's Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him

Baby, Let's Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him

Dolly

Behind Closed Doors

The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley

Dolly: The Biography

Behind Closed Doors: Talking with the Legends of Country Music