Sinatra: The Life

In 1941, at age twenty-five, Sinatra told a friend, ''I''m going to be the best singer in the world''. Two years on, the bobbysoxers were already weeping and screaming for him in their thousands. Half a century on Bono defined him as ''the Big Bang of popular music''. ''To hell with the calendar,'' a music critic wrote before his death in 1998, ''The day Frank Sinatra dies, the twentieth century is over.''

There have been many books about Sinatra, but the last comprehensive biography was Kitty Kelly''s HIS WAY, published in 1986. it has taken renowned biographer Anthony Summers years to research this new biography, which promises to be the definitive story of a musical and film career spanning six decades. In this massively documented book, meticulous investigation is coupled with sensitivity to examine every aspect of Sinatra''s life, public and private, from his obscure beginnings in an immigrant neighborhood in Jersey City to his twilight years as a living legend in Palm Springs. It tells the human story of an American icon who was irresistible to women and who was plagued throughout his life by scandal and hints of links with the Mafia. In this book, Summers finally uncovers the whole truth.