About this item
A major biographyintimate, gripping, revelatoryof an artist who revolutionized American comedy.Richard Pryor may have been the most unlikely star in Hollywood history. Raised in his familys brothels, he grew up an outsider to privilege. He took to the stage, originally, to escape the hard-bitten realities of his childhood, but later came to a reverberating discovery that by plunging into the depths of his experience, he could make stand-up comedy as exhilarating and harrowing as the life hed known. He brought that trembling vitality to Hollywood, where his movie careerBlazing Saddles, the buddy comedies with Gene Wilder, Blue Collarflowed directly out of his spirit of creative improvisation. The major studios considered him dangerous. Audiences felt plugged directly into the socket of life.
About the Author
SCOTT SAUL is a historian and critic who has written for The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, The Nation, Bookforum, and other publications. The author of Becoming Richard Pryor and Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties, he is also the creator of "Richard Pryor's Peoria" -- www.becomingrichardpryor.com -- a digital companion to his Pryor biography that brings to life Pryor's formative years in Peoria's red light district.
For a limited time only, readers can request a signed "book plate" (a nice sticker that Scott Saul is happy to inscribe as you like) for Becoming Richard Pryor at http://www.scott-saul.com/#!contact/c1kcz.
He teaches courses in American literature and history at UC-Berkeley, where he is an Associate Professor of English. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and son.
