American Legends: The Life of Will Rogers

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Scott Clem

Length: 1 hr and 1 min

Publisher's Summary

"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts." - Will Rogers

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, listeners can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

Biographers of Will Rogers are always faced with a tough task, because the list of things Will Rogers didn't do is a much shorter one than the list of things he did. By the time he died in 1935 in a plane crash in Alaska, he was one of the most famous men in the world and one of the most versatile celebrities. With a career spanning several decades and most of his life, Rogers not only dabbled in vaudeville, film, writing, and politics but reached the pinnacle of most of those professions, even if they were more like hobbies to him. By the 1930s, he was not only a syndicated columnist but also the highest paid actor in Hollywood and widely considered an important voice in the Democratic Party. Rogers was also frequently on the radio and frequently on the move, traveling around the world several times and traveling when he died.

While he was famous among his contemporaries for a wide variety of things, Will Rogers is still a household name nearly 80 years after his death. Even those who don't recall everything that he packed into his 55 years - the live shows, the movies, the radio broadcasts, and the 4,000 newspaper columns that were read by nearly a full third of the population - remember what Rogers stood for.

©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2016 Charles River Editors

Good overview

A good start but it could have gone into much deeper detail and told a better story.

Summary Information

The book is very brief and not worth the expense. At best it is only brief overview of Will Rogers and repeats itself in a couple of areas. I am so disappointed in this book that I would not venture to read any others in the series

Short and sweet

Would you consider the audio edition of American Legends: The Life of Will Rogers to be better than the print version?

Did not read it,

What did you like best about this story?

Great story

Have you listened to any of Scott Clem’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no

Any additional comments?

I liked this one on Will Rogers, The other one I bought on his digest was just terrible. Dont waste your time on it.