In the decades following his death, many of those who knew James Dean best - actors, directors, friends, lovers (both men and women), photographers, and Hollywood columnists - shared stories of their first-person experiences with him in interviews and in the articles and autobiographies they wrote.

Their recollections of Dean became lost in fragile back issues of movie magazines and newspapers and in out-of-print books that are extremely hard to find.

Until now.The Real James Dean is the first book of its kind: a rich collection spanning six decades of writing in which many of the people whose lives were touched by Dean recall their indelible experiences with him in their own words.