Evel: The High-Flying Life of Evel Knievel by Leigh Montville

Montville’s “outlandishly entertaining” biography traces the life of Evel Knievel from his outlaw youth and brief superstardom to the sad years at the end of his life.

(Doubleday, $27.50)

For several years beginning in the late 1960s, Evel Knievel was “the coolest man on earth,” said Kyle Smith in the New York Post. By tracing the life of the motorcycle daredevil from his outlaw youth to brief superstardom and beyond, Leigh Montville’s “outlandishly entertaining” biography helps us remember why. Born Robert Knievel in 1938, this son of a hardscrabble Montana mining town styled himself a star-spangled American hero when he’d rev up his Harley and attempt—often unsuccessfully—to soar over cars, buses, cougars, and practically anything else that would draw an audience. He was a circus performer and “existential outlaw” rolled into one.

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