About the Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson may have died, but thanks to current and projected biography projects, the story of his life is still being told, from several different perspectives and with several different objectives.Of course, the only person who can truly tell the story of Michael Jackson is Jackson himself, and in November 2008, Scottish newspapers claimed that Jackson was working on a new autobiography, and had been meeting with major New York publishing houses. None of the publishing houses would confirm that rumor, but if he had been working on such a book, they’re all undoubtedly scrambling to produce it.
The previous Jackson autobiography, 1988’s Moonwalk, looks back on his early days with the Jackson 5, as well as the start of his solo career. He incorporated personal, as to that point unseen, photographs, and also revealed his father’s tendency to violence. Moonwalk is currently out of print, but given current circumstances, a reprinting is a likely scenario.
Jackson followed Moonwalk with Dancing the Dream, his 1992 collection of poems, essays and photographs. The subject matter, rather than focusing on the biographical, instead covered Jackson’s thoughts on performance, religion and life in general. It, too, is out of print, but may be found through used bookstores or Web sites.
For other sides to Jackson’s story, a plethora of biographies and exposes are available. One of the most in-depth, Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson, by Darwin Porter, provides over 500 pages of in-depth biography. Porter’s account is widely held as one of the most comprehensive accounts of Jackson’s life, also, as it came out in 2007, it stands as one of the most up-to-date Jackson accounts.
Another provocative tome is Michael Jackson , which delves into his 2004 child molestation trial. Aphrodite Jones, noted crime writer, wrote the book after examining the evidence independently. As Jones told The O’Reilly Factor in 2005, she was ashamed of her role in the media’s prejudicial treatment of Jackson’s guilt. Conspiracy defends Jackson as a victim of the press, and strives to show another angle of the story.
Jackson’s life is well-known for its eccentricity and tumult, so there are many more biographies to come. Since his death, blogs and Web sites have been speculating about the most likely candidates to pen additional memoirs, as well as projected celebrity tribute books.
The public’s appetite for Michael Jackson books is at an all-time high, so publishers and biographers are certainly striving to uncover the details of his life, which will emerge for years to come.
