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Sign up todayLiving Dangerously
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Learn moreExplorer, war hero, filmmaker, and cinema pioneer, Merian C. Cooper, the adventurer who created King Kong, was truly larger than life. Spellbound since boyhood by tales of life-threatening adventure and exotic locales, Cooper plunged into harrowing expeditions to places not yet civilized by modern man. One of the first bomber pilots during World War I, he would return to military service during World War II, flying missions into the heart of enemy territory. In addition to producing King Kong, he teamed Fred Astaire with Ginger Rogers, arranged Katharine Hepburn’s screen test, collaborated with John Ford on his greatest Westerns, and changed the face of film forever with Cinerama. Here is a stunning tribute to a two-fisted visionary who packed a multitude of lifetimes into eighty remarkable years and whose greatest desire was always to live dangerously.
Mark Cotta Vaz is the author of such New York Times bestsellers as The Art of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Behind the Mask of Spider-Man. Living Dangerously is his nineteenth published book. His other works include the critically acclaimed The Invisible Art: The Legends of Movie Matte Painting (co-authored with filmmaker Craig Barron), which won the Theatre Library Association of New York Award for outstanding book on film in 2002 and the United States Institute for Theatre Technology’s Golden Pen Book Award. More recent projects include a first novel and a history of the segregated units of World War II.
Patrick Cullen (a.k.a. John Lescault), a native of Massachusetts, is a graduate of the Catholic University of America. He lives in Washington, DC, where he works in theater.
Reviews
“Merian C. Cooper’s life reads like an adventure novel, as Mark Vaz proves perfectly with Living Dangerously.”
“Living Dangerously is a wonderful addition to the literature of movies and popular culture but, on a personal level, it allowed me to understand the man who made the movie that had such a powerful effect upon me…Now finally…the legend comes out of the shadows.”
“Mark Cotta Vaz’s account of Cooper’s adventures as soldier, prisoner of war, explorer, documentarian, mogul, and director is breathtaking. We all know the ape was big. But the man behind the ape? Even bigger.”
“Mark Cotta Vaz has drawn on an impressive amount of research…Cooper was lucky enough to live in an age when dreamers could inflict their fantasies upon the world, and smart enough to make indelible use of that privilege.”
“[A] boisterous, chest-thumping biography…Vaz captures the mythic magic of Cooper’s cinematic creations…The charismatic Cooper, ‘a man living his own movie,’ is no longer an obscure, remote figure, thanks to Vaz’s exhaustive research and skillful writing.”
“[Cooper’s] life rivaled that of any cinematic hero…readers will enjoy the ride. Recommended for all cinema collections.”
“[A] readable, frequently gripping biography. An altogether appealing addition for film-history collections.”
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