Award-winning cultural historian Bob Batchelor celebrates Lee on centennial of his birth
Stan Lee would have been 100-years old on December 28, 2022. Celebrating his iconic life, award-winning cultural historian Bob Batchelor has written Stan Lee: A Life (Rowman & Littlefield, hardback, October 15 2022, adult trade, retail: $22.95).
The book’s foreword was written by multimedia superstar Tom DeLonge, the founder of award-winning vertically-integrated entertainment company To The Stars* and Grammy-nominated punk band Blink-182, called “arguably the most influential pop-punk band ever” by Alternative Press magazine. Blink-182 has sold more than 25 million albums.
“Stan Lee’s extraordinary life was as epic as the superheroes he co-created, from the Amazing Spider-Man to the Mighty Avengers,” said Batchelor. “His ideas and voice are at the heart of global culture, loved by millions of superhero fans around the world. Beyond the characters and film cameos, however, is a life that is uniquely American and representative of recent history.”
Batchelor offers an in-depth and complete look at Lee as an iconic visionary. Born in the Roaring Twenties, growing up in the Great Depression, living and thriving through the American Century, and dying in the twenty-first century, Stan Lee’s life is a unique representation of recent American history. Batchelor examines Lee’s fascinating American life by drawing out all its complexity, drama, heartache, and humor, revealing how Lee introduced the world to heroes that were just as fallible and complex as their creator—and just like all of us.
“Stan paved a path for artists like me to be creative and make a living from our creative energy,” said Tom DeLonge, founder of To The Stars* and Blink-182. “What a wonderful idea: legions of young people creating and imagining a better world, but one that might actually be a bit more on the nose than anyone would suspect…but minus the supersuits. Or not?”
Stan Lee: A Life takes an up-close look at a legendary figure. The Centennial Edition includes completely new material to give the full measure of a man whose genius continues to mesmerize audiences worldwide. For this book, Batchelor engaged with research and ideas over the five-year span since the publication of Stan Lee: The Man Behind Marvel debuted in late 2017. The result is a new, expanded book that brings the full man to life—his personal hopes and dreams, challenges, and how he became one of America’s most beloved icons over a career that stretched over parts of nine decades.
Candid, authoritative, and absorbing, this is the biography of a man who dreamed of one day writing the Great American Novel, but ended up doing so much more—revolutionizing culture by creating new worlds and heroes that have entertained generations.
For more information on Rowman & Littlefield, Tom DeLonge, To The Stars*, or Bob Batchelor, please visit the linked websites.
For an interview with Bob or to inquire about a contributed article on Stan Lee, Marvel history, or other cultural history topics, please contact the author: bob@bobbatchelor.com. For an Advanced Reader Copy of the book (pdf), please contact the author or the Marketing Department at Rowman & Littlefield: publicity@rowman.com. You can order a copy via the publisher’s NetGalley catalog at https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/258643.
Bob Batchelor is a critically-acclaimed cultural historian and biographer. He has published books on Stan Lee, Bob Dylan, The Great Gatsby, Mad Men, and John Updike. His latest, Rookwood: The Rediscovery and Revival of an American Icon, An Illustrated History won the 2021 Independent Press Book Award for Fine Art. The Bourbon King: The Life and Crimes of George Remus, Prohibition’s Evil Genius won the 2020 Independent Press Book Award for Historical Biography. Stan Lee: The Man Behind Marvel was a finalist for the 2018 Ohioana Book Award for Nonfiction.
Bob’s books have been translated into a dozen languages and his work has appeared in Time magazine, the New York Times, Cincinnati Enquirer, and Los Angeles Times. Bob is also the creator and host of the podcast John Updike: American Writer, American Life. He has appeared as an on-air commentator for The National Geographic Channel, PBS NewsHour, PBS, and NPR. Bob hosted “TriState True Crime” on WCPO’s Cincy Lifestyle television show.
Bob earned his doctorate in American Literature from the University of South Florida. He has taught at universities in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, as well as Vienna, Austria. Bob lives in Raleigh with his wife Suzette and their teenage daughters.