About the Author

Mel Watkins is a former editor at The New York Times Book Review. He is the author of Dancing with Strangers: A Memoir. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

"Fascinating and exhaustive ... at once a serious social history and an enormously entertaining reading experience." --Robert Boynton, Chicago Tribune "A penetrating and immensely enjoyable history... For many readers, this book will transform their conception of the character, and the source, of much American popular culture." -- The New Yorker