Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg

“This feels like the book Kenneth Turan was born to write, for he brings to the task, and conveys to the reader, all the pleasure of deep research into an inexhaustible subject, all the expertise gained over the course of a lifetime spent loving and thinking and writing about Hollywood and the movies, and all the insight into and feeling for his remarkable subjects, with their gifts and their demons, of his own powerfully humane imagination.”—Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

“Dazzling, engaging, and beautifully written, Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg is the latest addition to the outstanding Jewish Lives series from Yale University Press. Turan captures these two titans with exceptional insight and appreciation. It’s a wonderful piece of history, masterfully told.”—Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book

“How do you present a fresh version of a familiar story? Start by conducting meticulous research, then filter it through a twenty-first-century prism, aided by vast personal knowledge and superior writing skill. It’s no small feat, but it’s what Kenneth Turan has managed to achieve in this compelling dual biography.”—Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian