Bruce Lee


Book Description

Only now can the full story be told 15 years after the untimely death of Bruce Lee. The director of his greatest hit, Enter the Dragon, brings you this explosive biography. Over 150 rare photos of the Little Dragon's life and career. Interviews with his family and friends. Includes over 200 pages of facts, quotes, and photos, many published for the first time.




Bruce Lee


Book Description

The “definitive” (The New York Times) biography of film legend Bruce Lee, who made martial arts a global phenomenon, bridged the divide between eastern and western cultures, and smashed long-held stereotypes of Asians and Asian-Americans. Forty-five years after Bruce Lee’s sudden death at age thirty-two, journalist and bestselling author Matthew Polly has written the definitive account of Lee’s life. It’s also one of the only accounts; incredibly, there has never been an authoritative biography of Lee. Following a decade of research that included conducting more than one hundred interviews with Lee’s family, friends, business associates, and even the actress in whose bed Lee died, Polly has constructed a complex, humane portrait of the icon. Polly explores Lee’s early years as a child star in Hong Kong cinema; his actor father’s struggles with opium addiction and how that turned Bruce into a troublemaking teenager who was kicked out of high school and eventually sent to America to shape up; his beginnings as a martial arts teacher, eventually becoming personal instructor to movie stars like James Coburn and Steve McQueen; his struggles as an Asian-American actor in Hollywood and frustration seeing role after role he auditioned for go to a white actors in eye makeup; his eventual triumph as a leading man; his challenges juggling a sky-rocketing career with his duties as a father and husband; and his shocking end that to this day is still shrouded in mystery. Polly breaks down the myths surrounding Bruce Lee and argues that, contrary to popular belief, he was an ambitious actor who was obsessed with the martial arts—not a kung-fu guru who just so happened to make a couple of movies. This is an honest, revealing look at an impressive yet imperfect man whose personal story was even more entertaining and inspiring than any fictional role he played onscreen.




Unsettled Matters


Book Description




Bruce Lee Artist of Life


Book Description

"Bruce Lee was known as an amazing martial artist, but he was also a profound thinker. He left behind seven volumes of writing on everything from quantum physics to philosophy." — John Blake, CNN Named one of TIME magazine's "100 Greatest Men of the Century," Bruce Lee's impact and influence has only grown since his untimely death in 1973. Part of the seven-volume Bruce Lee Library, this installment of the famed martial artist's private notebooks allows his legions of fans to learn more about the man whose groundbreaking action films and martial arts training methods sparked a worldwide interest in the Asian martial arts. Bruce Lee Artist of Life explores the development of Lee's thoughts about Gung Fu (Kung Fu), philosophy, psychology, poetry, Jeet Kune Do, acting, and self-knowledge. Edited by John Little, a leading authority on Lee's life and work, the book includes a selection of letters that eloquently demonstrate how Lee incorporated his thought into actions and provided advice to others. Although Lee rose to stardom through his physical prowess and practice of jeet kune do—the system of fighting he founded—Lee was also a voracious and engaged reader who wrote extensively, synthesizing Eastern and Western thought into a unique personal philosophy of self-discovery. Martial arts practitioners and fans alike eagerly anticipate each new volume of the Library and its trove of rare letters, essays, and poems for the light it sheds on this legendary figure. This book is part of the Bruce Lee Library, which also features: Bruce Lee: Striking Thoughts Bruce Lee: The Celebrated Life of the Golden Dragon Bruce Lee: The Tao of Gung Fu Bruce Lee: Letters of the Dragon Bruce Lee: The Art of Expressing the Human Body Bruce Lee: Jeet Kune Do




Bruce Lee The Tao of Gung Fu


Book Description

In the months leading up to his death, Bruce Lee was working on this definitive study of the Chinese martial arts--collectively known as Kung Fu or Gung Fu. This book has now been edited and is published here for the first time in its entirety. Bruce Lee totally revolutionized the practice of martial arts and brought them into the modern world--by promoting the idea that students have the right to pick and choose those techniques and training regimens which suit their own personal needs and fighting styles. He developed a new style of his own called Jeet Kune Do--combining many elements from different masters and different traditions. This was considered heretical at the time within martial arts circles, where one was expected to study with only a single master--and Lee was the first martial artist to attempt this. Today he is revered as the "father" of martial arts practice around the world--including Mixed Martial Arts. In addition to presenting the fundamental techniques, mindset and training methods of traditional Chinese martial arts, this martial art treatise explores such esoteric topics as Taoism and Zen as applied to Gung Fu, Eastern and Western fitness regimens and self-defense techniques. Also included is a Gung Fu "scrapbook" of Bruce Lee's own personal anecdotes regarding the history and traditions of the martial arts of China. After Lee's death, his manuscript was completed and edited by martial arts expert John Little in cooperation with the Bruce Lee Estate. This book features an introduction by his wife, Linda Lee Cadwell and a foreword from his close friend and student, Taky Kimura. This Bruce Lee Book is part of the Bruce Lee Library which also features: Bruce Lee: Striking Thoughts Bruce Lee: The Celebrated Life of the Golden Dragon Bruce Lee: Artist of Life Bruce Lee: Letters of the Dragon Bruce Lee: The Art of Expressing the Human Body Bruce Lee: Jeet Kune Do




The Bruce Lee Story


Book Description

Linda Lee chronicles the life of her husband, martial artist Bruce Lee, focusing on their life together and her husband's film career.




Like Water


Book Description

Highlights Bruce Lee’s influence beyond martial arts and film An Asian and Asian American icon of unimaginable stature and influence, Bruce Lee revolutionized the martial arts by combining influences drawn from around the world. Uncommonly determined, physically gifted, and artistically brilliant, Lee rose to fame as part of a wave of transpacific globalization that bridged the nearly seven thousand miles between Hong Kong and California. Like Water unpacks Lee’s global impact, linking his legendary status as a martial artist, actor, and director to his continual traversals across the newly interconnected Asia and America. Daryl Joji Maeda’s multifaceted account of Bruce Lee’s legacy uniquely traces how movements and migrations across the Pacific Ocean structured the cultures Bruce Lee inherited, the milieu he occupied, the martial art he developed, the films he made, and the world he left behind. A unique blend of cultural history and biography, Like Water unearths the cultural strands that Lee intertwined in his rise to a new kind of global stardom. Moving from the gold rush in California and the British occupation of Hong Kong, to the Cold War and the deployment of American troops across Asia, Maeda builds depth and complexity to this larger-than-life figure. His cultural chronology of Bruce Lee reveals Lee to be both a product of his time and a harbinger of a more connected future. Nearly half a century after his tragic death, Bruce Lee remains an inspiring symbol of innovation and determination, with an enduring legacy as the first Asian American global superstar.




Tribute: Bruce Lee


Book Description

Actor, Teacher, Philosopher, Icon. These are just a few of the words that describe the most influential martial artist of all time: Bruce Lee. Immortal Dragon: Bruce Lee follows Bruce's life from his infancy starting out as a child actor to his tragic death and posthumous superstardom.




Bruce Lee


Book Description

A complete and balanced account, not just of Lee's life but of the philosophy and fighting skills that made him the highest paid movie star of his day and the greatest martial artist of the modern age.