All Or Nothing At All- Alife of Frank Sinatra by Clarke, Donald
All Or Nothing At All: A Life of Frank Sinatra (First Edition Hardcover Copy)
An Unusual, Deeply Evaluative Musical Portrait Balancing the Complete Artist Against the Headline-Grabbing Playboy
An Unusual, Deeply Evaluative Musical Portrait Balancing the Complete Artist Against the Headline-Grabbing Playboy
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: All Or Nothing At All: A Life of Frank Sinatra
- Author: Donald Clarke
- Publisher: Macmillan, London
- Publication Date: 1997 (18 April 1997)
- ISBN-10: 0333643208
- ISBN-13: 9780333643204
- Edition Details: First UK Edition, First Printing. Standard hardcover release with original unclipped dust jacket.
- Binding: Original publisher's premium textured cloth-covered boards with crisp gilt-stamped typography running down the spine, complete with structurally sound matching endpapers.
- Physical Format: Octavo (8vo), 294 pages. Enhanced with comprehensive chronological album evaluations, dedicated discographical notation indices, and a curated section featuring historical black-and-white archival photographs tracking his vocal evolution.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
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The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Exterior / Cloth Boards: The cloth casing remains in exceptional condition, sitting flat, square, and structurally sound. The corners show only microscopic storage friction, and the spine ends are crisp. The spine itself remains completely unbroken, flat, and undamaged, retaining its original textbook rigidity.
- Interior: The text block is robustly bound, perfectly clean, and tight. The internal pages are crisp and intact, entirely free of standard user highlighting, ink underlining, dealer pencil marks, or dog-ears.
- Provenance: An exemplary, well-maintained collectible copy showing no evidence of remainder marks, institutional library stamps, or previous owner nameplates.
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The Dust Jacket: Very Good (VG)
- Condition Details: The original vintage 1997 dust jacket exhibits vibrant graphics and strong paper structural integrity. It shows very limited, superficial signs of handling and slight edge wear along the outer extremities. Features slight, localized markings on the inside paper flaps, completely hidden when the jacket is displayed. The jacket is beautifully preserved and protected in a clear, archival Cellophane cover.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Published in 1997, All Or Nothing At All stands as an unusual, highly distinctive entry in the vast landscape of Sinatra literature. Eschewing standard tabloid sensationalism, acclaimed musicologist Donald Clarke delivers a sophisticated biographical portrait that seeks to understand the complete Sinatra—balancing the headline-grabbing playboy and political operator against the extraordinary recording artist and cultural icon. Clarke offers the compelling thesis that Sinatra's control over himself as an artist was too absolute to allow him fully to be a true jazz singer, choosing instead to become the master architect of the modern American popular song.
Written with a sophisticated, conversational tone that alternates between sentimental admiration and a critical chiding of Sinatra’s infamous shortcomings—including his hero-worship of dangerous gangsters and his lifelong promiscuity—the narrative shines brightest when Clarke connects the music to real-world history. He beautifully contextualizes the era by noting that the big hit “I'll Never Smile Again” was number one when he was born, and his mother never forgot it. The book provides an essential, track-by-track evaluation of Sinatra's major album eras, making it an indispensable reference guide for understanding exactly why his voice defined the 20th century.
Author Profile: Donald Clarke
Donald Clarke is a highly distinguished American music historian, editor, and lexicographer. He achieved international renown as the compiler and editor of the monumental Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, widely regarded as a foundational text in modern musicology. He has also authored numerous critically acclaimed musical biographies, including Wishing on the Moon: The Life and Times of Billie Holiday. Clarke's biographical methodology is widely praised by academics for its narrative speed, heavy reliance on primary discographical data, and a brilliant ability to strip away show-business mythologies to reveal the technical craftsmanship of global recording icons.
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