It's Elvis Week in Memphis, the annual gathering of Elvis fans from around the word who come to Graceland to pay respects to the King, who died on August 16, 1977.
In 2008, Overlook published the most definitive and all-encompassing book on Elvis Presley, The Elvis Encyclopedia, by Adam Victor. This critically-acclaimed and truly monumental document is an essential part of every Elvis fan's library.
But there's more! Coming in November is a brand new volume, Elvis in Vegas, which concentrates on the many years Elvis spent in Las Vegas. The author, Paul Lichter, is one of the world's leading authorities on the subject of Elvis Presley. Featuring more than 300 full-color and black-and-white photographs – many of which have never been seen – Elvis in Vegas is the only book to focus exclusively on the Vegas years, which ran from the late 1960s (he married Priscilla in 1967 at the Aladdin) to his death in 1977. Over the years, Elvis performed over 800 sold-out shows in Vegas, mostly at the International, which later became the Hilton. This was the era of Elvis in jump suits, 25 piece bands, state of the art sound and stage design, and of course the mighty spectacle of the King performing on stage. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully produced, Elvis in Vegas also includes a comprehensive overview of Elvis’s life in Vegas – concerts, set lists, news clippings, interviews, and details about his legendary month-long hotel engagements.
Elvis in Vegas will be published on October 27, 2011, and available in fine bookstores and through online booksellers.
Hillel Italie of the Associated Press writes insightfully about two Kings - Elvis Presley, King of Rock and Roll, and Michael Jackson, King of Pop, who died tragically yesterday in Los Angeles:
"Michael Jackson didn’t want to be just a superstar. Like the Beatles, he wanted to be the biggest, the king. He wanted to topple the reigning man with the crown, Elvis. In life and in death, there was Elvis. “It’s just so weird. He even married Elvis’ daughter,” said author-music critic Greil Marcus, who wrote at length about Presley in his acclaimed cultural history, Mystery Train. Elvis Presley overdosed — in his bathroom — on prescription drugs in 1977 at 42, his bloated, glazed middle age a cautionary tale to rock stars and other celebrities. Jackson died Thursday at 50, rushed from his Los Angeles home and pronounced dead at the UCLA Medical Center. The death shocked more than surprised. While endless fame seemed to inflate Elvis like helium, Jackson’s fame seemed to scrub the flesh and wear into his bones until you could almost see him shiver. Like Elvis, Jackson was once beautiful, outrageous, a revolutionary without politics who shook down the walls between black and white. He had the hits, the style, the ego, the talent. He was the King of Pop and he needed only to fill in the life: He married Elvis’ daughter. He bought the rights to some of Elvis’ songs. Elvis owned Graceland, its name a symbol for a deliverance the singer prayed for until the end of his life. Jackson had Neverland, a fantasy for a child-man for whom money meant the chance to live in a world of his own. He did, and did not, want to be like Elvis."
Read more about Elvis, Michael, and Lisa Marie in Adam Victor in The Elvis Encyclopedia.
Note to Elvis fans: The 2009 Tupelo Elvis Festival will take place on June 5-7, 2009 in Elvis' birthplace of Tupelo, Mississippi. Three days of fun events, including an Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest preliminary, live concerts, a parade and more! If you're planning to attend, you'll first want to check out Adam Victor's monumental celebration of all-things-Elvis, The Elvis Encyclopedia. The Elvis Birthplace and Museum opened in 1971 and is the most visited attraction in Mississippi with over 100,000 visitors every year. Another Tupelo Elvis site worth seeing, according to Victor, is the Tupelo Hardware Store (at the time Booth's Hardware), where Elvis bought his first guitar.
Adam Victor, author of The Elvis Encyclopedia, talks about the making of the most comprehensive work ever assembled on the life and times of Elvis Presley:
Q: What inspired you to tackle such a labor intensive research project on both of these figures, and what made the Elvis Encyclopedia in particular an even more Olympian task than the Marilyn project?
A: In 1996 I was approached to do the
Marilyn Encyclopedia by Peter Mayer of Overlook, and was happy to say yes. If I had known how much work the project involved, I might not have taken on that book, but once I plunged into her exceptional life, I vowed to keep going until I produced an encyclopedia worthy of its subject. After Marilyn, I promised my wife that I would not do another icon encyclopedia. Initially, I declined my publisher’s suggestion to take on Elvis. In the end, I acquiesced because I figured that I already had a method, that my personal approach to putting together this kind of reference work had an appreciate audience, and that I knew how much work would be involved. Once again, to borrow a phrase, I mis-underestimated.
Q: Elvis is altogether a larger, more present figure than Marilyn – the only other comparable twentieth-century icon. The reason?
A: Well, in terms of compiling the Elvis Encyclopedia, apart from the general fact that music is a more pervasive presence in people’s everyday lives than movies, Elvis sang a thousand songs, gave thousands of concerts, starred in more movies than Marilyn, and has had an official body (the Elvis Presley Estate) looking after and developing his image and generally taking care of business for the last thirty years. If writing the Marilyn Encyclopedia was an Olympian task, the Elvis Encyclopedia was a Sisyphean one: a great many rocks needed to be rolled up the hill.
Q: While reviewers commented on your “insanely detailed” work and your lack of humor about Elvis, they all consistently admired the illustrations and photographs, the cross-referencing and your balanced reporting. What do you feel are the strengths of your encyclopedia?
A: I actually took the “lack of humor” comment as a compliment. I wrote an encyclopedia, not a joke book! In my final draft of the book, I actually weeded out the more flippant comments.
I’m gratified that reviewers found the book to be even-handed. Enough people have expressed their opinions on every possible facet of Elvis’s life and work; there was little need for me to add my two cents’ worth. This, I believe – along with its exhaustiveness… I prefer exhaustive or comprehensive to “insanely detailed” – is the strength of this book. Plus, it’s got heft. How many books out there weigh 6 pounds?
Q: What can even moderate fans or even a new generation that knows nothing about Elvis garner from an encyclopedia versus, say, the Life Magazine biography?
A: Once again, my hope – we’re dealing with authorial intention here, which does not always coincide with readers’ impressions – is that the Elvis Encyclopedia offers a kaleidoscopic view of the man, his life and his work. I made great efforts to include a balanced and varied selection of comments on Elvis’s life. Neophytes, and younger people still discovering the topography of modern music, may also appreciate entries on the background to Elvis’s life and times, broad-stroke entries on things as varied as “Rock ‘n’ Roll”, “Gospel”, “Memphis”, “Youth culture” etc., all of which have a bearing on or help to illuminate the subject of the book. There’s a lot of words in a 600 page encyclopedia, but in the end Elvis was about music—he was also about many other things, but really it was his unique voice, his compendium of music styles and trademark songs like “Hound Dog” that keep someone like myself returning to him as an artist, even as I must push aside the public kitschy archetypes of him to get to that original musician.
Q: What are your favorite Elvis songs and why? When did you first remember listening to Elvis? Do you still listen to Elvis? Indeed, did you ever listen to Elvis while working on the encyclopedia? Do you think Elvis will remain relevant for this next generation?
A: Yup, a nail-on-the-head statement if ever I’ve heard one. Elvis is, first and last, about music. A unique voice, a unique talent, a unique ability to touch people with his singing... I listened to Elvis constantly while I worked on the encyclopedia, and I continue to listen to him today. One of the greatest pleasures of doing this book was the opportunity to listen to songs I knew I loved, and to discover hundreds of Elvis tracks I had never heard. Then, when I’d gone through pretty much his whole vocal oeuvre, I started in on the outtakes, the alternates, the jam sessions – the things that fans treasure. I wish I had a favorite Elvis song or two in answer to this question, because it’s the one question I am always asked. I have Elvis periods that I listen to more frequently: his early years, of course; a great favourite of mine is the jam session at Sun Studio from December 1956, when he sang for hours with Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and (though there is some controversy about this) Johnny Cash; I love the incredible urgency and power of Elvis in 1968 and 1969 – I find myself returning again and again to the material he recorded and rehearsed for his NBC TV Comeback Special, and the work he did at American Studio with Chips Moman for the albums he recorded immediately after that. The thing about Elvis is that because he effortlessly delivered such emotion and intensity in practically every song he performed or recorded, there are gems to be found even on his more forgettable albums. Unfortunately, I was too young ever to see him perform live; just watching DVDs of his performances shows what an incredible hold he had on an audience."
Adam Victor's magnificent tribute to one of the true icons of the twentieth-century, The Elvis Encyclopedia, is included in the San Francisco Chronicle's list of best Holiday Books for 2008: "For the serious Elvis Presley fan, this comprehensive collection of all things Elvis covers the King's childhood, music and film careers, life, loves and legacy. With its abundant photos and memorabilia, one could pore over its pages for days on end. It is written by the author of The Marilyn Encyclopedia, a writer who became an Elvis fan though this six-year research project." And BookPage notes The Elvis Encyclopedia is a valuable one-stop source of all things informational about the King. The A-Z reference covers seemingly every person, place, and thing that touched Elvis's eventful life, and it's nothing if not exhausting. . . Victor has certainly cast his net widely in search of rarely seen pictures, and on that nostalgic note alone, his is a regal book - fit for a king."
Adam Victor's magnificent study of the life and legacy of Elvis Presley, The Elvis Encyclopedia, is getting rave reviews all over the world. This just in from The Times (UK):
"Adam Victor has followed his compendium of all known facts about Marilyn Monroe with this remarkably handsome volume on another modern icon - the greatest rock artiste of our time, and (arguably) the most influential singer of any time. If you want to know about Elvis and guns and telephones, how many paternity suits were filed against him, what books he read and even what breed of dog he gave his last-but-one girlfriend, this book is for you. As a visual compendium of Elvis and his times the work is outstanding, and students of rock'n'roll history have a valuable resource of quotes, pictures and facts - for every detail of every single record is here, as well as the names of musicians he worked with, those singers he influenced and the credits for all his movies, down to “Colonel Tom Parker - technical adviser”. (The old rogue looked after himself more than he looked after the genius he managed.) Victor notes that his encyclopedia is “longer than the Old Testament”; certainly to fundamentalist Elvis nerds it will be as valuable as the Bible."
★ The Elvis Encyclopedia has received a starred review in Publishers Weekly: "This obsessively detailed and completely entertaining chronicle by Adam Victor (The Marilyn Encyclopedia) of every possible aspect of Elvis Presley’s life is mesmerizing and deserves a wide audience. Elvis fans will delight in the many famous and rare photos illustrating entries on the King’s every song, album and movie as well as his complete last will and testament. But nonfans will marvel at such meticulously researched entries as “Religion” (a vision of “Stalin and Jesus in a high bank of cloud” made Elvis consider “joining a monastery”), as well as a comprehensive state-by-state list of “Hotels Where Elvis Stayed.”
It's Elvis Week in Memphis, the annual gathering of Elvis fans from around the word who come to Graceland to pay respects to the King, who died on August 16, 1977. 
I miss him!!! Its a sad time!! He is the King of POP!!!
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