Carson: The Unauthorized Biography

Paul Corkery. Randt, $17.95 (239pp) ISBN 978-0-942101-00-3

Former TV Guide columnist Corkery here produces a superficial biography of television's most popular talk-show host. He chronicles Carson's happy boyhood in the Midwest, his early career as a magician, his struggles to succeed in radio and TV, his triumph as successor to Jack Paar on the Tonight show. There are also interviews with the three ex-wives and much speculation about why each of the marriages failed. But, apart from revelations that Carson admires Jack Benny and Fred Allen, and does not enjoy socializing, there is nothing here that hasn't appeared in gossip columns. Photos. 75,000 first printing; first serial to Good Housekeeping; author tour. (September)

Featured Nonfiction Reviews

Craig Unger

Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign really did make a deal with Iran to delay the release of 52 American hostages until after the election, according to this labyrinthine Continue reading »

Edmund White

With his trademark irreverence, White (The Humble Lover) celebrates more than six decades of sex in a candid memoir that doubles as an indispensable work of queer history. A Continue reading »

Jason de León

Smugglers who help Central Americans traverse Mexico and cross into the U.S. are not the “slick haired... kingpins” portrayed in popular media but are usually themselves poor Continue reading »

Dorian Lynskey

This sweeping cultural history from journalist Lynskey (The Ministry of Truth) chronicles how films, novels, and other media have imagined the apocalypse from ancient times Continue reading »