Duke in His Own Words: John Wayne's Life in Letters, Handwritten Notes and Never-Before-Seen Photos Curated from His Private Archive Hardcover – Illustrated, October 27, 2015

Easy to ready book full of personal letters sent to Duke and sent by Duke. I already knew a lot about Duke but liked him even more after reading these letters. I liked his bluntness in writing politicians, like the time he told Barry Goldwater that he was upset that Goldwater didn't return his call. I also liked it when a fan who was ill and was entering the hospital invited Duke to his "farewell" party and Duke told him to stop calling it a farewell and to toughen up and come out okay. He had strong opinions but was also very generous. He returned $2500 paid him for an appearance that actor's union required him to accept. So he deposited their check and wrote a personal one to the organization where he spoke so that they could get their money back. Duke's confidence just shines through in this great book and I found it inspiring!

Got this for my Dad who's birthday is in January. Since I had to hold onto it for so long I ended up reading it before giving it to him. It was a great book! I grew up watching his movies because my Dad is a huge fan, I have to say there was a lot in this book I did not know about John Wayne & it just made me love him more. I'm sure my Dad will be thrilled with it when he reads it!

As a big fan of John Wayne, I wanted to add this book to my collection. I purchased this in the hardcover edition. If you've read a lot of books about John Wayne, as I have, only a few of the pictures will be new to you but there are some good ones included.I was a little disappointed in the number of letters/telegrams/etc that were shown. I was hoping for more correspondence & fewer pictures. However, we do get a sampling of correspondence to & from John Wayne between him and family, friends, coworkers, politicians, fans, & service men. There is even a handwriting analysis included in the first few pages. I particularly liked a letter he wrote to his grandchildren & the letter he wrote in response to the Harvard students' challenge. He was obviously a very caring, thoughtful, & intelligent man.

This book is just a wonderful compilation of the Real John Wayne! I have been a fan since I was a little girl, watching his westerns with my dad, this book caps my collection of books about him. He comes through in true fashion as the wonderful, loving, compassionate and real man that he was. Thanks to the John Wayne Foundation and Ethan Wayne for putting this together. If you love The Duke...you'll love this book!

Exceptional book. Great photos we had never before seen in a Duke book. We bought it for a die hard Duke fan for Christmas. He has loads of collectors items & he had not yet heard of this book, nor seen most of the photos. It was well received & appreciated.

Interesting book but some pages have prints of actual letters and notes. These are very light print and HARD to read. Gift for my Dad. He can’t easily see much of the contents. I need a magnifying glass and extra lighting to really read some pages. Lots of great photos.

I bought this for my husband. He and I are both John Wayne fans. It was very disappointing and boring. We would not recommend it unless you are just a collector. Save your money.

I bought this as a gift for a man who loves Westerns and John Wayne was the king of the Western.

Who does not like the Duke? a great in sight into a larger than life legend ,where life is black and white and the Duke is fair to every man,pity our world is not like that now.This book is great and shared by the Duke's family with personnel letters from fan's all over the world and i felt i got to know a lot more about the Duke and how very important his fan's were to him,and also accepting of criticsim ,would be one of those guy's I would have loved to have met.Well worth it if you love John Wayne and his movies I do ,One of his many million's of western fan's around the world. John Thomson,South Island New Zealand

This is basically a collection of photographs and hand written notes. Only given it three stars as it took a few hours to read.

If you grew up on the Duke you'll enjoy this insight. A pleasant insight by his family, and easy to start at any point time and again.If you watched the Alamo as a youngster umpteen times, and all his other Classics, you will enjoy this !

Bought for a Christmas gift so not read yet by recipient looked good though

Brilliant, got a lot of John Wayne books and this is different, well worth the money.