{"product_id":"frank-capra-sam-wasson-9780063291133","title":"Frank Capra: A Life","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of the beloved \u003ci\u003eFifth Avenue, Five A.M. \u003c\/i\u003eand T\u003ci\u003ehe Big Goodbye\u003c\/i\u003e comes the definitive account of one of the quintessential American artists, Frank Capra, visionary behind the iconic and timeless \u003ci\u003eIt's a Wonderful Life.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrank Capra, the director of \u003ci\u003eMr. Smith Goes to Washington, It Happened One Night, \u003c\/i\u003eand, supremely, \u003ci\u003eIt's a Wonderful Life\u003c\/i\u003e remains one of the great chroniclers of the American heart, how we love, lead, dream, hope, and fight for our individuality. But Frank Capra was a more complex artist than is usually reckoned and a more complicated man than anyone knows. As his most famous collaborator Jimmy Stewart put it, \"the best Frank Capra story is the story of his own life. It's got more highs and lows than a roller coaster. It's heartwarming. It's kind of hard to believe, really. And it could only happen in America.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike many great American stories, this story begins in Ellis Island where a penniless family of Sicilian immigrants arrives in 1903. Frank Capra's life goes on to take in the explosive growth of Southern California and the film industry, the depths of the Depression, the enormity of the Second World War, and America's uneasy post-war as an empire riven by a loss of unity. It is a life as shot through with both \"moonbeams\" and melancholy as that of his greatest creation, George Bailey. Capra is both the exemplar of American ideals, as in his truly vital work for Roosevelt's war effort, and of American failings, as in his informing during the McCarthy period.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis extraordinary book, making full use for the first time of Capra's own archives, including deeply personal writings from his later years, has brought this seminal artist into urgent life. At the same time, in its epic richness, it offers a dazzling portrait of both a lost America and an enduring one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Sam Wasson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0063291134\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780063291133\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Harper\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/27\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 736\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Sam Wasson","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48623611478271,"sku":"9780063291133","price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/frank-capra-sam-wasson-9780063291133","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}