Roman Candle: The Life of Bobby Darin - Hardcover

"In order to truly understand who Bobby Darin was you have to understand where he came from. David Evanier's new book, ROMAN CANDLE, tells the story of the young Walden Robert Cassotto--who grew up to become Bobby Darin--in a compelling and revealing way. His examination of Darin's impulses and influences give the reader a chance to go behind the persona and learn what it must have been like to grow up knowing that time was not on your side. Darin's drive and ambition was fueled by childhood illness and a determination to live as many lives as he could. As Darin himself used to say, 'It's not true you only live once--you can live a lot of times--if you know how.' ROMAN CANDLE gives us the many lives of one of the great entertainers of all time, whose flame was extinguished way too soon. It was a pleasure to read." --Kevin Spacey, actor/director, BEYOND THE SEA "This biography percolates with cool. . . . [Evanier has] written a book so charged with intimacy, so heartbreakingly ebullient with life, that you feel that any moment the pages are about to snap their fingers and break into song." --Caroline Leavitt, The Boston Globe "Darin has been the subject of several books; most notable is this new examination of the singer's life and work by David Evanier, a former senior editor of The Paris Review. . . . Evanier's portrait, true to its title, is one of a bright talent that soared quickly and erupted in a flash of glory." --David Hajdu, The Atlantic Monthly "Music fans are liable to be surprised by the Bobby Darin mania sparked by Kevin Spacey's sunny new film biography. For the slightly darker look at Darin, hole up for the holidays with ROMAN CANDLE, the latest book about Darin's rollercoaster life." --Top Ten list of Books for Gifts by Janet Maslin of the New York Times (12/19/04)

A sensitive, startling portrait of the legendary singer-timed to hit stores just as the Kevin Spacey movie Beyond the Sea has kindled intense new interest in every aspect of Darin's life and tragically early death. By age 8 Bobby Darin knew he was doomed to die young. So he set out to become a showbiz legend by age 25. From his Grammy-winning smash hit "Mack the Knife" to his Oscar-nominated supporting role in Captain Newman, M.D., Darin left his mark on every aspect of show business that he touched. Now, 32 years after his death at age 37, we finally have an elegantly written, multilayered portrait of this brash, gifted artist. Author David Evanier has: o Interviewed all the key principals in the Darin saga and culled rare photographs from the singer's closest friends o Pored through scores of videotapes, audiotapes, recordings, documents, and films o Re-created the rock-and-roll and Broadway show- business milieus of the 1950s that Darin emerged from, and the sharply changing musical, political, and cultural world of the 1960s that had such a profound impact on him. The result is a moving, insightful portrait of one of the greatest-and most complex-performers in the history of American entertainment, whose restless voice and spirit seem as alive today as ever.