Down at the End of Lonely Street

Down at the End of Lonely Street: The Life and Death  of Elvis Presley

by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske

Dutton (1998)

This intimate portrait of Elvis Presley, America’s favorite music idol, chronicles his remarkable life from a dirt-poor schoolboy in Memphis through his rise as a Rock n’ Roll superstar to his final days in Las Vegas. Drawing on exclusive interviews with Elvis’s closest friends and new documentary evidence, this biography reveals secrets about his relationships with his addictive mother Gladys, his ruthless manager Colonel Tom Parker, his musical rivals The Beatles, and the truth behind his marriage to Priscilla Beaulieu. Featuring a complete discography and filmography as well as sixteen pages of photographs–some never before published–Down at the End of Lonely Street cuts through the lies and the legends to present the real Elvis Presley, a man who was troubled, talented, and unfailingly human.

What the critics said…

“An exquisite writing feast on top of equally rare insights and interviews into what made Elvis tick.”
—Sunday Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)

“A vivid, remarkably detailed, you-are-there account of an extraordinary life. If there’s room for only one Elvis bio on your bookshelves, this should be it.”
—Outré magazine

“The authors manage to reveal many little known or overlooked facts. . .They also attempt to humanize Elvis. . . this is the first [Elvis book] that really deserves to be called a ‘biography’ in its truest sense.”
—Scene (Cleveland, OH)

“[The book] gives us, finally, a portrait of a complex, ambitious man who was not so much a victim of fate as a manipulator of that fate.”
—Buffalo News (N.Y.)

“Exhaustingly well-researched. . .the best bio ever done of the King of Rock ‘n Roll. . .There is a real affinity by the authors for the complicated, tortured Presley.”
—The Evening Tribune (N.Y.)

“An extraordinarily detailed examination of Presley’s birth, life, death and legacy. . .it is fair to say the book is by far the most comprehensive examination of the Presley phenomenon yet written. . .In the manner of David Halberstam’s excellent work, The Fifties, [Brown and Broeske] create a cultural portrait that should enlighten those who believe Elvismania to be little more than the embarrassing construct of large white trailer park inhabitants. . .They have created an immensely readable book that in time should come to be the standard against which subsequent investigations may be measured.”
–The Toronto Star

“An earnest examination of America’s most enduring pop icon.”
—Los Angeles Times

“A serious biography of the man who changed the face of popular music.”
—The Vancouver Sun

“Here’s a serious, meticulous portrait of the King’s life.”
—Detroit News

“Brown and Broeske have done a masterful job of research to create a brilliant, vivid portrait of an American original.”
—Flint Journal (MI)