num_pages: 280
description: From Prince himself comes the brilliant coming-of-age-and-into-superstardom story of one of the greatest artists of all timefeaturing never-before-seen photos original scrapbooks and lyric sheets and the exquisite memoir he began writing before his tragic death. Prince was a musical genius one of the most talented beloved accomplished popular and acclaimed musicians in history. He was also a startlingly original visionary with an imagination deep enough to whip up whole worlds from the sexy gritty funk paradise of Uptown to the mythical landscape of Purple Rain to the psychedelia of Paisley Park. But his most ambitious creative act was turning Prince Rogers Nelson born in Minnesota into Prince the greatest pop star of his era. The Beautiful Ones is the story of how Prince became Princea first-person account of a kid absorbing the world around him and then creating a persona an artistic vision and a life before the hits and fame that would come to define him. The book is told in four parts. The first is composed of the memoir he was writing before his tragic death pages that brings us into Princes childhood world through his own lyrical prose. The second part takes us into Princes early years as a musician before his first album released through a scrapbook of Princes writing and photos. The third section shows us Princes evolution through candid images that take us up to the cusp of his greatest achievement which we see in the books fourth section: his original handwritten treatment for Purple Rainthe final stage in Princes self-creation as he retells the autobiography weve seen in the first three parts as a heroic journey.The book is framed by editor Dan Piepenbrings riveting and moving introduction about his short but profound collaboration with Prince in his final monthsa time when Prince was thinking deeply about how to reveal more of himself and his ideas to the world while retaining the mystery and mystique hed so carefully cultivatedand annotations that provide context to each of the books images. This work is not just a tribute to Prince but an original and energizing literary work full of Princes ideas and vision his voice and image his undying gift to the world.
language: English
title: The Beautiful Ones
publisher: Spiegel & Grau/Random House, Inc.