James Stewart ─ A Biography

Fans feel they know Jimmy Stewart: the charismatic boy next door filled with righteous conviction, the American ideal. But Jimmy Stewart the image often eclipsed James Stewart the actor and the man. In this penetrating in-depth biography, Donald Dewey delves beneath the earnest Capraesque persona and into the usually unremarked turmoil of the actor's private life. Drawing upon extensive research and nearly two hundred interviews, he follows Stewart from his hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania and a childhood shaped by a strong-willed father, to the fateful encounter at Princeton University with actress Margaret Sullavan, to his first professional theatrical experiences on Cape Cod and the forging of a remarkable life-long friendship with Henry Fonda in New York, to his unexpected stardom at MGM.