Bound for Graceland

Elvis in the Morning, by William F. Buckley Jr. (Harcourt, 328 pages, $25)

An infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of typewriters might peck for a year or two before they stumbled upon the charming idea of matching up William F. Buckley Jr. and Elvis Presley. Elvis in the Morning is Buckley’s sweet, improbable study of the King’s rise and dissolution. The novel imagines Elvis from the early days when he had the face of a Greek god pouting (and the most notorious, hydraulic pelvis in America), through fame, his imprisonment in the bubble that is the downside of celebrity, and the long sad collapse to his death in 1977 at the age of 42.

About the Author

Lance Morrow

Mr. Morrow, an essayist, is the Henry Grunwald Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

Elvis in the Morning, by William F. Buckley Jr. (Harcourt, 328 pages, $25)

An infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of typewriters might peck for a year or two before they stumbled upon the charming idea of matching up William F. Buckley Jr. and Elvis Presley. Elvis in the Morning is Buckley’s sweet, improbable study of the King’s rise and dissolution. The novel imagines Elvis from the early days when he had the face of a Greek god pouting (and the most notorious, hydraulic pelvis in America), through fame, his imprisonment in the bubble that is the downside of celebrity, and the long sad collapse to his death in 1977 at the age of 42.