Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense

Winner of the 2022 Edgar Award for Best BiographyAn Economist Best Book of 2021A fresh, innovative biography of the twentieth centurys most iconic filmmaker.In The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock, Edward White explores the Hitchcock phenomenonwhat defines it, how it was invented, what it reveals about the man at its core, and how its legacy continues to shape our cultural world.The books twelve chapters illuminate different aspects of Hitchcocks life and work: The Boy Who Couldnt Grow Up; The Murderer; The Auteur; The Womanizer; The Fat Man; The Dandy; The Family Man; The Voyeur; The Entertainer; The Pioneer; The Londoner; The Man of God. Each of these angles reveals something fundamental about the man he was and the mythological creature he has become, presenting not just the life Hitchcock lived but also the various versions of himself that he projected, and those projected on his behalf.From Hitchcocks early work in England to his most celebrated films, White astutely analyzes Hitchcocks oeuvre and provides new interpretations. He also delves into Hitchcocks ideas about gender; his complicated relationships with his womennot only Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren but also his female audiencesas well as leading men such as Cary Grant, and writes movingly of Hitchcocks devotion to his wife and lifelong companion, Alma, who made vital contributions to numerous classic Hitchcock films, and burnished his mythology. And White is trenchant in his assessment of the Hitchcock persona, so carefully created that Hitchcock became not only a figurehead for his own industry but nothing less than a cultural icon.Ultimately, Whites portrayal illuminates a vital truth: Hitchcock was more than a Hollywood titan; he was the definitive modern artist, and his significance reaches far beyond the confines of cinema.