Pre-order: https://geni.us/CompleteJohnnyCash
Johnny Cash, “The Man in Black,” one of America’s most beloved and iconic songwriters, captured the heart and soul of the nation as he spoke through his music to the human condition, sharing the victories and losses that marked his own life. Now, for the first time ever, the comprehensive and definitive book “THE COMPLETE JOHNNY CASH: Lyrics from A Lifetime of Songwriting” collects Cash’s song lyrics alongside never-before-seen reproductions of dozens of handwritten pages from his personal notebooks. This is the most complete catalog of his prolific, 55-year career as a songwriter with 526 songs, prose and poems he wrote.
Culled from countless notebooks, leather-bound diaries, elegant pronouncements, and his most private pages from the Cash archive, THE COMPLETE JOHNNY CASH includes 38 never-before-seen handwritten lyrics and poems including “A Man Should Try” and “Everything’s Alright” and a foreword written by his son, John Carter Cash.
Spanning over a half century of Johnny Cash’s songs, poetry, prose, and musings, from the 1940s to 2003, the essential collectible features material from his childhood in rural Arkansas, across the highs and lows of his public career and personal life, through to his last days. The book is sumptuously designed and will stand as a landmark moment in music publishing.
Love and appreciation for Johnny Cash and his timeless music are higher than ever. Cash is the first professional musician to be honored with a statue in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall. Each state has donated two statues to reside in Statuary Hall and Johnny joins Daisy Bates in representing Arkansas.
Organized chronologically and with critical commentary from Mark Stielper, who Cash lovingly called “my friend, the family historian,” on themes that appear throughout his work, the book catalogs Cash’s breathtaking range as a poet and storyteller. It traces his evolution from his earliest compositions to his last love song, through periods of personal struggle, political activism, and tests of faith. THE COMPLETE JOHNNY CASH paints an unprecedented portrait of Johnny Cash as a quintessential American artist—and America’s premier storyteller.