#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The brilliant coming-of-age-and-into-superstardom story of one of the greatest artists of all time, in his own words—featuring never-before-seen photos, original scrapbooks and lyric sheets, and the exquisite memoir he began writing before his tragic death
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST MUSIC BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND THE GUARDIAN • NOMINATED FOR THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD
Prince was a musical genius, one of the most beloved, accomplished, and acclaimed musicians of our time. He was a startlingly original visionary with an imagination deep enough to whip up whole worlds, from the sexy, gritty funk paradise of “Uptown” to the mythical landscape of Purple Rain to the psychedelia of “Paisley Park.” But his most ambitious creative act was turning Prince Rogers Nelson, born in Minnesota, into Prince, one of the greatest pop stars of any era.
The Beautiful Ones is the story of how Prince became Prince—a first-person account of a kid absorbing the world around him and then creating a persona, an artistic vision, and a life, before the hits and fame that would come to define him. The book is told in four parts. The first is the memoir Prince was writing before his tragic death, pages that bring us into his childhood world through his own lyrical prose. The second part takes us through Prince’s early years as a musician, before his first album was released, via an evocative scrapbook of writing and photos. The third section shows us Prince’s evolution through candid images that go up to the cusp of his greatest achievement, which we see in the book’s fourth section: his original handwritten treatment for Purple Rain —the final stage in Prince’s self-creation, where he retells the autobiography of the first three parts as a heroic journey.
The book is framed by editor Dan Piepenbring’s riveting and moving introduction about his profound collaboration with Prince in his final months—a time when Prince was thinking deeply about how to reveal more of himself and his ideas to the world, while retaining the mystery and mystique he’d so carefully cultivated—and annotations that provide context to the book’s images.
This work is not just a tribute to an icon, but an original and energizing literary work in its own right, full of Prince’s ideas and vision, his voice and image—his undying gift to the world.

lgli/Prince The Beautiful Ones (2019) (retail) (ePub).epub

Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House

Spiegel & Grau/Random House, Inc.

Putnam Publishing Group, The

Penguin Publishing Group

Boulevard Books

United States, United States of America

First Edition (U.S.), US, 2019

First edition, New York, 2019

From Prince himself comes the brilliant coming-of-age-and-into-superstardom story of one of the greatest artists of all timefeaturing never-before-seen photos, original scrapbooks and lyric sheets, and the exquisite memoir he began writing before his tragic death.
Prince was a musical genius, one of the most talented, beloved, accomplished, popular, and acclaimed musicians in history. He was also a startlingly original visionary with an imagination deep enough to whip up whole worlds, from the sexy, gritty funk paradise of Uptown to the mythical landscape of Purple Rain to the psychedelia of Paisley Park. But his most ambitious creative act was turning Prince Rogers Nelson, born in Minnesota, into Prince, the greatest pop star of his era.
The Beautiful Ones is the story of how Prince became Princea first-person account of a kid absorbing the world around him and then creating a persona, an artistic vision, and a life, before the hits and fame that would come to define him. The book is told in four parts. The first is composed of the memoir he was writing before his tragic death, pages that brings us into Princes childhood world through his own lyrical prose. The second part takes us into Princes early years as a musician, before his first album released, through a scrapbook of Princes writing and photos. The third section shows us Princes evolution through candid images that take us up to the cusp of his greatest achievement, which we see in the books fourth section: his original handwritten treatment for Purple Rainthe final stage in Princes self-creation, as he retells the autobiography weve seen in the first three parts as a heroic journey.
The book is framed by editor Dan Piepenbrings riveting and moving introduction about his short but profound collaboration with Prince in his final monthsa time when Prince was thinking deeply about how to reveal more of himself and his ideas to the world, while retaining the mystery and mystique hed so carefully cultivatedand annotations that provide context to each of the books images.
This work is not just a tribute to Prince, but an original and energizing literary work, full of Princes ideas and vision, his voice and image, his undying gift to the world.

An acclaimed musician, Prince Rogers Nelson was a visionary with an imagination deep enough to whip up whole worlds. But his most ambitious creative act was turning himself into one of the greatest pop stars of any era. Before his death Prince was writing a memoir, taking us into his childhood world. The second part of the book takes us through his early days as a musician through a scrapbook of writing and photos. We then follow Prince's evolution through candid images, before turning to his handwritten treatment for Purple Rain-- a retelling of the first three pars as a heroic journey. Piepenbring's introduction, and annotations throughout, provide context to the book's images. -- adapted from jacket

2024-11-26