Bill Zehme was the author of the New York Times bestseller The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin' and Lost in the Funhouse: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman. He coauthored memoirs by Jay Leno and Regis Philbin, served as a longtime writer at large for Esquire, and contributed to other publications including Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Vanity Fair. A native and lifelong resident of Chicago, he died in 2023.

Mike Thomas is the author of two critically acclaimed books, The Second City Unscripted: Revolution and Revelation at the World-Famous Comedy Theater and You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman. He spent more than fourteen years as an arts and entertainment features writer at the Chicago Sun-Times and is a regular contributor to Chicago magazine. He lives in Chicago with his family.

"Terrific." --Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune

"Shimmers with nuance and wonder." --Booklist (starred review)

"Perceptive and beautiful." --Library Journal (starred review)

"Splendid...nuanced....Carson's fans will appreciate the glimpse behind the curtain." --Publishers Weekly

"An immensely informative and insightful account of the personal and professional life of this heretofore inscrutable entertainment icon...Full of compelling vignettes." --Glenn C. Altschuler, Minnesota Star Tribune

"Like so many biographers before him, Zehme at times felt as if he was at risk of being buried alive by the research, a journalistic hoarder haunted by the question: What if I'm missing something? His spirit can rest easy. Carson the Magnificent delivers the man in full while keeping the mystery of what made him tick alive." --James Wolcott, Washington Post

"A memorial of the monoculture...Carson the Magnificent harks back to an era when doom and scroll were biblical nouns and Carson's Tonight Show was a clear punctuation mark to every 24-hour chunk of the workweek." --Alexandra Jacobs, New York Times Book Review

"An entertaining look at not only a unique figure in 20th-century popular culture but also a bygone era in American television." --Kirkus Reviews

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Pub date: 2024-11-05

Length: 336 pages