Oscar Micheaux
The Great and Only: The Life of America's First Black Filmmaker
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Book Presentation:
Oscar Micheaux was the Jackie Robinson of film, the black D. W. Griffith—a bigger-than-life American folk hero whose important life story has been nearly forgotten today. The son of freed slaves, he roamed America as a Pullman porter before making his first mark as a homesteader in South Dakota—and going on from there to become the king of the "race cinema" industry, producing and/or directing nearly forty films during a time of Jim Crow segregation when African-American artists were not welcome in Hollywood.
In this groundbreaking new biography, award-winning film historian Patrick McGilligan offers a vivid and fascinating portrait of a true pioneer of American culture who was equal parts visionary, hustler, huckster, innovator, and raffish Barnum-like showman—and the first great African-American filmmaker.
About the Author:
Patrick McGilligan is the author of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light; Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast; George Cukor: A Double Life; the life stories of the directors Nicholas Ray, Robert Altman, and Oscar Micheaux; and the biographies of the actors James Cagney, Jack Nicholson, and Clint Eastwood. He also edited the five-volume Backstory series of interviews with Hollywood screenwriters and (with Paul Buhle) Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Press Reviews:
"McGilligan deftly assembles the sterling research of scholars of early black filmmaking into an enormously moving and compelling account of a quixotic life defined by arduous toil and perpetual optimism." — DGA Quarterly
"a well researched, passionately felt and endlessly fascinating look at a singular American life." — Kirkus Reviews
"McGilligan has made this incredible, half-forgotten life newly available to us all." — The Guardian
"An enormously moving and compelling account of a quixotic life defined by arduous toil and perpetual optimism." — Directors Guild Association Quarterly
McGilligan does a fine job of reaffirming Micheaux’s significance beyond the appreciation of cineastes. — Publishers Weekly
"In the skilled hands of Patrick McGilligan, Oscar Micheaux’s life story bristles and takes flight." — Pearl Bowser, author of Writing Himself into History: Oscar Micheaux, His Silent Films and His Audiences
"a lively, readable tale" — New York Times Book Review
Praise for Alfred Hitchcock: "Staggering… illuminating… The Master of Suspense finally gets and authoritative life." — Kirkus Reviews (starred)
Praise for Alfred Hitchcock: "Enthralling, scholarly, and candid." — Publishers Weekly
Praise for Alfred Hitchcock: "Magnificently exhaustive, absolutely definitive, marvelously magesterial…" — Los Angeles Times Book Review
Praise for Alfred Hitchcock: "A hugely satisfying portrait of the artist." — Entertainment Weekly
See the publisher website: Harper Perennial
See the complete filmography of Oscar Micheaux on the website: IMDB ...
> From the same author:
Sydney Pollack (2026)
Collected Interviews
Dir. Patrick McGilligan and Paul Cronin
Subject: Director > Sydney Pollack
Young Orson (2015)
The Years of Luck and Genius on the Path to Citizen Kane
Subject: Director > Orson Welles
Tender Comrades (2012)
A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist
by Patrick McGilligan and Paul Buhle
Subject: History of Cinema
Backstory 5 (2009)
Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1990s
Dir. Patrick McGilligan
Subject: Technique > Scriptwriting
Backstory 4 (2006)
Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1970s and 1980s
Subject: Technique > Scriptwriting
George Cukor (1991)
A Double Life : A Biography of the Gentleman Director
Subject: Director > George Cukor
> On a related topic:
Writing Himself Into History (2000)
Oscar Micheaux, His Silent Films, and His Audiences
by Pearl Bowser and Louise Spence
Subject: Director > Oscar Micheaux
The Afterlives of Kathleen Collins (2021)
A Black Woman Filmmaker's Search for New Life
Subject: Director > Kathleen Collins
Eddie Green (2016)
The Rise of an Early 1900s Black American Entertainment Pioneer
Subject: Director > Eddie Green
Trying to Get Over (2016)
African American Directors After Blaxploitation, 1977-1986
by Keith Corson
Subject: On Films > Guides and dictionaries
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