Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Memoir Biography Cultural Studies Music History True Stories Celebrity Romance Elvis Presley

Are You Lonesome Tonight? is the 1988 paperback that Elvis collectors rank among the most talked-about memoirs in Presleyana. Co-written by Lucy de Barbin with seasoned biographer Dary Matera, 390 fast-moving pages recount the decade-long, off-stage romance de Barbin claims she shared with the King, beginning in 1956 and continuing—by turns passionate and clandestine—until the eve of his 1977 death. Because the narrative is told from the vantage point of a young woman who says she lived in the shadows of Graceland’s gates, readers get a street-level view of Elvis’s private moods, midnight phone calls, and the emotional cost of super-stardom rarely captured in standard music histories.

What makes this biography especially collectible is its timing: published only eleven years after Elvis’s passing, the book predates the sanitized estate-approved accounts that followed. First-edition paperbacks like this 1988 U.S. printing are increasingly scarce; most copies were read and re-read, leaving clean interiors uncommon. The yellowed pages and light edge-foxing here are typical for a 35-year-old mass-market release, while the tight spine and unmarked text block confirm it has been gently shelved rather than abused. For fans hunting primary-source material, every chapter is foot-noted with letters, phone bills, and photos the authors say corroborate the affair.

Beyond the memorabilia value, the story’s emotional pull keeps it in demand among both adult readers who lived through Elvis mania and younger fans discovering him retroactively. De Barbin describes how Elvis would slip away from movie sets and Vegas residencies to meet her in small Southern towns, trading his rhinestone image for pickup trucks and home-cooked meals—details that humanize the icon. Whether approached as a revealing love story or a cultural artifact that sparked lawsuits and talk-show debates, Are You Lonesome Tonight? remains a page-turning gateway into the very private life of a very public legend.

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