Geburtstag: 1947-11-25
Geschlecht: male
Kurzbiographie: With the upcoming publication of Dylan: A Biography (Turner Publishing, May, 2014), Dennis McDougal has authored a total of eleven books and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles in a career that has spanned over 40 years. Currently, he is working on The Acid Chronicles, a book and documentary film about the renaissance of LSD as a powerful tool in the treatment of mental illness.

Before he began covering movies and media for the Los Angeles Times in 1983 and, more recently, the New York Times, McDougal worked as a staff writer at dailies in Riverside and Long Beach, California. A UCLA graduate, McDougal holds a Bachelor's in English and a Master's in Journalism. He was awarded a John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford University and spent a year teaching and studying in Palo Alto, Japan and Canada. Over the years, his journalism has won over 50 honors, including the National Headliners and George Peabody Award. He was a producer for CNN during the O.J. Simpson murder trial and co-produced Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times (2009) for PBS.

A contributing writer with TV Guide, McDougal has also written for Los Angeles Magazine, Premiere, and the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine.

McDougal has lectured in journalism and creative writing at UCLA, Stanford, and the California State Universities at Fullerton and Long Beach. He and his wife, Sharon, live near Memphis, Tennessee, have five children, and 14 grandchildren.

http://www.dennismcdougal.com/bio.htm...

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Angel of Darkness: The True Story of Randy Kraft… von Dennis McDougal

This is a great book about a complicated serial killer, Randy Kraft. I read this book years ago, but decided to give it another read, and I am glad I did. It is very detailed, but not really graphic. Just gives the details necessary to understand what happened. Randy Kraft was killing young me at the same time other serial killers were out there in California. The author also talked about some of the other killers and gave the differences. I am glad because it was so interesting! I loved the way the book is written and it was well-written. I really had a hard time tearing myself away from it. I will read more of his books. This one is excellent and I highly recommend it!… (mehr)

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BonnieKernene | 4 weitere Rezensionen | Sep 4, 2021 |

Bob Dylan: The Biography von Dennis McDougal

Imagine a book about Ted Williams written by me, a guy who doesn't know much about baseball. That's what McDougal's biography is like. It's fine, I guess, but there's no there there. He barely talks about the songs and spends more time trying to paint his subject in some kind of edgy dark light--but even that gets old since facts about Bob are about as easy to confirm as facts about the Clintons. And when he does talk about the songs, he does so sparingly. (I can't resist noting that McDougal says this in his passage on Time Out of Mind: "A plea like 'To Make You Feel My Love' summoned sentiment as profoundly as any love song he'd ever written." Really? Is he kidding?)

Someone told me that he judges any Bob biography this way: read the passages on the God trilogy and see how he tackles it. McDougal does fine with this, but, like so much else, it's milquetoast. Better to read (or reread) Ian Bell's 2-volume biography, which I can't imagine being surpassed and features one perfect sentence after another. I couldn't wait to pick those up every day. This one I finished just to finish.… (mehr)

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Stubb | 1 weitere Rezension | Aug 28, 2018 |

Mother's Day von Dennis McDougal

Wow, what a story. OK, I will say it, Theresa Knorr Cross is a horrible, horrible person. She treated everyone who loved her like her own personal slaves, that everyone should always be at her beck and call and do her bidding. She screams at you if you did anything wrong. She had to always make herself look good. She even did this to her own children, or rather, especially to her own children. And husbands. This book is about the murders of 2 of her daughters, caused by her in so many ways. These girls deserved so much more. The book itself is well-written and well-researched, not an easy feat either with all of the details needed. I really liked this book and do recommend it.… (mehr)

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BonnieKernene | 2 weitere Rezensionen | May 18, 2017 |

The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden… von Dennis McDougal

If you are in the entertainment industry or have even a passing interest in it, read this book.

It has its flaws. For example, with all of its footnotes and extensive citations, there are assertions made about situations the author would have no firsthand knowledge of, yet are not supported with references. There is one episode about Marilyn Monroe, in particular, that would have so much more power if there were a citation...There is also a bit of a knowing, insider tone that presumes the reader knows certain historical events or milestones that no lay person would have reason to know. In what is ultimately a non-academic, pop history book, these should be fatal flaws, except...

The story the book tells, how it tells it and the people whose voices are included make the good far outweigh any bad. There simply won't be another general interest book covering this period or point of view. I am not aware of a revised edition, but there is easily room for one as the main subject was still living when the book was published and the business he left behind went through a convulsive period in the years following publication.

Read this book.… (mehr)

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burningdervish | Nov 29, 2016 |

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