- “That hair! Those hips! Elvis Presley in the prime of his life and the beginning of his career, as captured in this fascinating fly-on-the-wall account by photographer Alfred Wertheimer, which leaves us feeling like hysterical girls circa 1956.”
- “Wertheimer took more than 3,000 candid shots of the Hillbilly Cat, some among the most iconic.”
- “The 2,500 photos Wertheimer captured rank among the most intimate and revealing portraits of the young star.”
- “...an extraordinary archive of a time, a place and the single person who defined it. Their fly-on-the-wall intimacy is testament, too, to the convergence of two relatively shy individuals.”
Alfred Wertheimer. Elvis and the Birth of Rock and Roll
Edition of 1,706Hardcover in clamshell box, letterpress-printed chapter openers, 31.2 x 44 cm (12.5 x 17.3 in.), 418 pages1500Edition: English, French, German Availability: In StockLimited Collector’s Edition of 1,706 copies, signed by Alfred Wertheimer

Alfred Wertheimer. Elvis and the Birth of Rock and Roll
1500The King of Rock ’n’ Roll Is Born
The making of Elvis, behind the scenes
This Collector’s Edition of just 1,706 numbered copies signed by Wertheimer brings together his most remarkable Elvis shots from 1956, along with a selection of his historic 1958 pictures of the star being shipped off to an army base in Germany. Though many of Wertheimer’s photos of Elvis are among the best known, nearly half of the photographs in this book have never been published before. Each chapter is illustrated with an original poster created for this book by Hatch Show Print, one of the oldest letterpress print shops in America. In business since 1879, Hatch printed posters for vaudeville, circuses, and entertainers on world tour in the early 20th century; and created many of the powerful woodblock images that helped define the look of country music in the 1940s and rock and roll (including many early Elvis posters) in the ’50s. Fans of photojournalism, portraiture, and, of course, the King himself will covet this collector’s volume.
Limited to a total of 1,956 numbered copies signed by Alfred Wertheimer, this book is available as a Collector’s Edition (No. 251–1,956), and also in two Art Editions of 125 copies each (No. 1–125 and No. 126–250)
The photographer
Alfred Wertheimer (1929-2014) was born in Germany, emigrated to America and settled in Brooklyn as a young boy. Wertheimer’s photographs, which first gained national attention after Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977, capture the metamorphosis of pop music and the cultural transformation of America.
The contributing author
Robert Santelli is the executive director of the Grammy Museum and former CEO/artistic director of the Experience Music Project. He is the author of nearly a dozen books and a contributor to magazines such as Rolling Stone.
The editor
Chris Murray has organized over 200 exhibitions of many of the leading artists of our time, from Andy Warhol in the 1970s to Annie Leibovitz’s first exhibition in 1984. He is co-curator of the Smithsonian Institution's exhibition Elvis at 21 and is the author or editor of over a dozen books.
Alfred Wertheimer. Elvis and the Birth of Rock and Roll
Edition of 1,706Hardcover in clamshell box, letterpress-printed chapter openers, 31.2 x 44 cm (12.5 x 17.3 in.), 418 pagesISBN 978-3-8365-3423-9
Edition: English, French, German5