Devault-Graves Books

02/12/2025

12/22/2022

Christmas is right around the corner. Why not give the gift that keeps on giving for a lifetime -- a book.

Devault Graves Books has published over 70 books, surely with one to appeal to everyone on your Christmas list. We have print books, eBooks, and audiobooks, with some of the greatest writers ever to hold a pen, from J.D. Salinger to Jack Kerouac. We have a whole selection of great music books covering Sun Records, Motown, John Lennon, Stax and Hi Records, and more.

Please visit our admittedly out of date web site (a new one is coming) to get an inkling of what we have available. Your local bookstore can get any of our books, and the eBooks and audiobooks are available on Kindle (and all other platforms) and Audible.

That perfect book is waiting just for you!

05/26/2022

ROBERT JOHNSON THE BLUESMAN and
ROBERT JOHNSON THE STEP-BROTHER

These two books will give you the full picture of the great blues artist Robert Johnson.

Devault Graves Books, the publisher of Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson by Tom Graves, is now recommending to all readers to also purchase the excellent Brother Robert by Robert Johnson's step-sister Annye Anderson, written with the great music writer Preston Lauterbach.

Readers the world over have been acclaiming both books and each one tells a particular side of Robert Johnson. Crossroads is considered by many the definitive text of Robert Johnson's life as a bluesman. It covers every aspect of his professional life and adds something no other Robert Johnson text has: it tells the afterlife of Robert Johnson. When Johnson died, not 100 people knew of him as a recording artist. Yet in 1990 his CD box set became the best-selling blues album of all time. How did he go from obscurity to such fame? This book tells that story.

Brother Robert, on the other hand, tells the story of the Robert Johnson that his family knew, told by the step-sister who grew up with him until his death. It gives an up-close personal side of Johnson that was never really known until Annye Anderson, now in her 90s, decided to tell the real story of the brother she loved and knew so well. Ms. Anderson also had kept the third known photograph of Robert Johnson which adorns the cover of this book.

Crossroads and Brother Robert are both available at your favorite local bookstore and from on-line sellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Buy them both and get the full and complete picture of this legendary artist.

05/02/2022

LENNON, the MOBSTER & the LAWYER

This is the new book by author Jay Bergen, the lawyer who represented John Lennon in a landmark legal case where the former Beatle was sued by the Mafia-connected record mogul, Morris Levy (the owner of Roulette Records). The book is published by Devault Graves Books and is available in bookstores and book platforms everywhere. It is a print book and an ebook and will be available in audiobook on May 15th from Audible.

What the book is about:

Before John Lennon retreated peacefully into private life in 1975, he fought a major legal battle that went under the public radar.

Just as his Rock 'n' Roll oldies album hit the market, Morris Levy, the Mob-connected owner of Roulette Records, released Roots, an unauthorized version of the same record. Levy had used rough mixes of John's unfinished Rock 'n' Roll recordings-and claimed the former Beatle had verbally agreed to the arrangement. The clash led to a lawsuit and countersuit between Levy and Lennon.

Attorney Jay Bergen, a partner in a prestigious New York City law firm, represented John in this epic battle over the rights to his own recordings. Millions of dollars were at stake.

Jay tells the intimate story of how he worked closely with John to rebut Levy's outrageous claims. He also recounts how John explained his recording process in poetic, exacting terms before a judge who knew little about the Beatles and John's solo career.

Lennon, the Mobster & the Lawyer catches the high drama of the courtroom skirmishes in this previously untold story. It also paints a detailed personal picture of John and his world in 1975-76, when he was soon to have a new son and went into happy seclusion to be a husband and father.

Order your copy today. Also available through our website at:

www.lennonthemobsterandthelawyer.com

01/17/2022

NEW JOHN LENNON BOOK: NOW AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER

Before John Lennon retreated peacefully into private life in 1975, he fought a major legal battle that went under the public radar.
Just as his Rock 'n' Roll oldies album hit the market, Morris Levy, the Mob-connected owner of Roulette Records, released Roots, an unauthorized version of the same record. Levy had used rough mixes of John's unfinished Rock 'n' Roll recordings-and claimed the former Beatle had verbally agreed to the arrangement. The clash led to a lawsuit and countersuit between Levy and Lennon.

Attorney Jay Bergen, a partner in a prestigious New York City law firm, represented John in this epic battle over the rights to his own recordings. Millions of dollars were at stake.

Jay tells the intimate story of how he worked closely with John to rebut Levy's outrageous claims. He also recounts how John explained his recording process in poetic, exacting terms before a judge who knew little about the Beatles and John's solo career.
Lennon, the Mobster & the Lawyer catches the high drama of the courtroom skirmishes in this previously untold story. It also paints a detailed personal picture of John and his world in 1975-76, when he was soon to have a new son and went into happy seclusion to be a husband and father.

Published by Devault Graves Books. Release date is May 1, 2022 but available for pre-order now wherever books are sold.

For more information, please check out our website at:
www.lennonthemobsterandthelawyer.com

10/08/2021

REX REED'S CLASSIC BOOK OF CELEBRITY PROFILES IS NOW BACK IN PRINT!

For over two decades, the art of the interview was very nearly the sole province of Rex Reed, the Master of the Celebrity Profile. While still in his twenties Rex Reed became a widely-syndicated film critic and from that vantage point began to interview everyone in the film and theater worlds who mattered. In Do You Sleep in the N**e?, the first of his four best-selling celebrity profile collections, he captures the ego and zany personality of soon-to-be-superstar Barbra Streisand, the elusive Warren Beatty just finishing Bonnie and Clyde, the last ever interview with legend Buster Keaton, and a classic and much reprinted portrait of Ava Gardner in her waning years.

Writer Tom Wolfe said about Reed: "Rex Reed...raised the celebrity interview to a new level through his frankness and his eye for social detail. He has also been a master at capturing a story line in the interview situation itself."

Along with Wolfe, Truman Capote, Kenneth Tynan, and Harry Crews, Rex Reed achieved a literary reputation for a genre, the celebrity profile, once relegated to gossip journalists who as often as not wrote studio-approved fantasies of the lives of the stars.
Devault Graves Books has reissued Do You Sleep in the N**e? in trade paperback. Virtually anyone who was anyone during the 1960s, '70s, and early '80s in the movie and theater world are captured for the ages in these books. When asked why he no longer writes celebrity profiles, Mr. Reed answered simply: "The movie stars of today are no longer interesting."

But when they were, Rex Reed was there to file them away for history. It is to the reader's pleasure to rediscover them.
Included in Do You Sleep in the N**e? are profiles of: Barbra Streisand, Warren Beatty, Carson McCullers, Lucille Ball, Ava Gardner, Lotte Lenya, Michaelangelo Antonioni, James Mason, Bill Cosby, Marlene Dietrich, and many more.

Do You Sleep in the N**e? is available on-line from amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com and your favorite indie bookstore. Or you can order the book from the publisher for $24.95 plus $5.00 shipping and handling. To order go to this Paypal address: [email protected]

07/25/2021

All fans of Robert Johnson need to take note!!!!

The cover image from my award-winning biography of Robert Johnson, Crossroads, is now available on a very nice Hanes t-shirt, a coffee mug, and a refrigerator magnet. I am spreading the gospel of Crossroads through some merchandising and these are all excellent, well-built American products. None of it is cheap Chinese stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with the Chinese. (Please don't hack me Chinese people!)

These items can be shipped right to your door. Payment is through Paypal at my Paypal address: [email protected].

Here are the prices. Please note that regarding the rather high shipping price for the mug is due to the weight of the item being higher than First Class mail is allowed. It is required at that weight to be shipped Priority Mail, which does get to you faster at least.

Robert Johnson t-shirt $22.95 plus $6.00 shipping

Robert Johnson coffee mug $15.95 plus $8.90 shipping

Robert Johnson fridge magnet $4.99 plus $1.50 shipping

07/10/2021

I want to announce the release by Devault Graves Book a superb new book by Memphis' most renowned living drummer, Howard Grimes. If you are not familiar with the name, you are most definitely familiar with his sound. Howard was behind the drums on the very first hits by Stax Records. Later he joined the Hi Rhythm Section and worked on the biggest hits by Al Green, Ann Peebles, Syl Johnson, and tons of other people.

Timekeeper is the grit and grind of a man from the South part of Memphis where he learned the streets and starting drumming when he was in his early teens. The book details the Memphis Sound and the people behind it. It is a gritty look behind the scenes of these hit makers and the life of the great drummer himself. He looks Memphis square in the eye and tells it like it was and like it is.

The book was written with the esteemed music writer Preston Lauterbach, famed for his Chitlin' Circuit and Beale Street Dynasty books. It is a fabulous read and this is a book no fan of Memphis music can afford to miss.

For more info on the book and some great photos go to www.howardgrimesdrummer.com. The book is available to order from this site for $24.95. I can vouch that you will NOT be disappointed with this terrific book.

It was an honor for Devault Graves Books to team up with both Howard Grimes and Preston Lauterbach to bring you this fine work that will become a part of Memphis music history.

02/15/2021

COMING SOON FROM DEVAULT GRAVES BOOKS: Our latest book coming July 1st is Timekeeper: My Life In Rhythm by one of Memphis' most lauded drummers, Howard Grimes.

Howard Grimes is the guy driving the beat behind some of Stax's earliest singles and was a member of the Mar-Keys, although Stax was afraid to photograph him with his white music mates.

When Hi Records brought Willie Mitchell on-board to produce the soul music they were beginning to record, it was Howard Grimes that Willie wanted on drums. He played on virtually every hit to come from Hi Records and he is heard on tracks by Al Green, Ann Peebles, and all the others. You know that beat and now you get to know the man behind it.

Grimes tells the gritty story of growing up in Memphis and drumming his way through the soul years, from its height to its demise. He has a boots-on-the-ground view of the whole scene and doesn't hold back on the truth and the details, no matter how scandalous.

This book is for anyone interested in Memphis soul music, in drumming, and in Memphis.

You can pre-order the book very soon before its official July 1st release.

Devault Graves Books keeps bringing you the very best in Memphis books and every kind of great reading!

12/12/2020

GIVE J.D. SALINGER FOR CHRISTMAS

In 2014 Devault Graves Books, an independent publisher based out of Memphis, made world news by publishing the first legitimate J.D. Salinger book in over 50 years. That book is Three Early Stories, a small book containing three of J.D. Salinger's earliest published short stories.

Many readers are unaware that prior to Salinger's fame with his short stories in The New Yorker he published 21 defining stories in various small but esteemed journals. The quality of these stories led him in short order to The New Yorker, his long-time goal. Once Salinger reached The New Yorker, he was dismissive of the earlier stories and never again allowed those 21 stories to be republished.

Doing diligent research, Tom Graves with Devault Graves Books discovered that the rights to Salinger's first two short stories plus one other were available and he quickly sought a new copyright and released Three Early Stories.

The book, less than 100 pages and with illustrations, is priced accordingly at only $12.99 and is available on Amazon.com and at all independent bookstores nationwide.

The perfect stocking stuffer for your book-loving friends and relatives for Christmas!!!

Have a taste of Salinger for Christmas!!!

12/12/2020

SHARE A LITTLE SOUL FOR CHRISTMAS

The best soul food cookbook ever!!! Cooking With Ms. Larthy!!!

During the summer of 2016 author and journalist Tom Graves was exasperated after ruining his third batch of fried catfish that season. Recently divorced and having to cook for himself he thought he'd like to get cooking lessons from an elderly African American lady who would teach him her kitchen secrets. His favorite food by far was soul food which he found similar to the Southern country cuisine he'd been raised on. He did not want a chef to give him lessons; he wanted a kitchen cook, someone whose recipes he could duplicate with relative ease.

A reverend friend of his in Memphis introduced Graves to 80-year-old Larthy Washington who had been her church cook for over 40 years. She agreed to teach Graves and for one year they met bi-weekly at her church for lessons and tastings. Soon after they began, Graves thought the recipes and stories Ms. Larthy told him would make an excellent cookbook. And so the cookbook Cooking with Ms. Larthy was born, filled with 100 recipes from Ms. Larthy plus an array of special guests renowned for their soul food cooking. The book is not only filled with soul food recipes, many of which contain wonderful descriptions and asides, but stories that put soul food and its history in its proper context.

Graves is a natural-born storyteller and foodies and cooks everywhere will enjoy the writing as well as 100 sumptuous soul food recipes that work well for beginning cooks as well as kitchen and cookbook veterans.

Cooking With Ms. Larthy is available from Amazon.com and all local independent bookstores nationwide. This is gift that will keep on giving! The perfect Christmas gift!

11/02/2020

A FREE SOUL FOOD RECIPE from our latest cookbook COOKING WITH MS. LARTHY, the best soul food cookbook ever.

MS. LARTHY’S LEFTOVER BEEF ROAST STEW

This is a fantastic way to take advantage of leftovers from a beef roast.

What you will need:

Leftovers from a beef roast cut into small pieces (or beef stew meat)
black pepper to taste
salt to taste (note: add salt only on your final tasting while cooking and only if you need it)
1 tsp. Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning
4 or 5 shots of Worcestershire sauce
2 shots of Liquid Smoke
4 or 5 shots of your favorite hot sauce (optional)
beef broth according to taste
1 small can tomato paste
1 can mixed vegetables
1 can corn
½ package of beef stew seasoning

Preparation:

If using stew meat, wash meat and while adding small amounts of water, cook stew meat in appropriate-sized pan until tender. If using beef roast leftovers simply add to your cooking pot. Add all other ingredients plus an amount of beef broth that is right for your taste. Stir well to disperse tomato paste. Add more beef broth if you like a thinner stew, less if you like it thicker. Stir well. On low heat, cook for 30 minutes. Excellent with cornbread or rolls. Also good using a slow cooker such as a Crock-Pot on low setting for the day. Add hot sauce only if you prefer the spicier, hotter version of the stew. Note: Because Liquid Smoke and worchestershire sauce contain salt, do not add ANY salt until your final tasting. Too much salt can ruin this and any dish.

For more soul food recipes designed for your home kitchen Cooking With Ms. Larthy by Tom Graves with Ms. Larthy Washington is available through all independent bookstores nationwide and for those who prefer ebooks the ebook version is available on all ebook platforms for the low, low price of $9.99. With full-color photographs.