Tryin' to Get to You: the Story of Elvis Presley

In the fall of 1954, author Valerie Harms met Elvis after a concert in her high school auditorium. As Elvis toured Texas that year, she got to know what Elvis was like and she was even kissed by him. At the suggestion of a local disc jockey, Harms and her friends started a fan club, possibly the first. Elvis gave them photos, signed cards, and read the letters sent to him.

When Elvis Presley died, Valerie Harms resurrected her memorabilia of encounters with him and published the story of his life. More deeply than any other book, Tryin' To Get To You: The Story of Elvis Presley explores the early years of his life: his poor childhood in rural Tupelo, Mississippi, his teenage insecurities in a big city high school in North Memphis and early successes in the South.

Elvis Presley changed American culture with a new style of popular music; one based on country ballads, the gospel hymns of his youth, and the black rhythm and blues he heard as a teen. Tryin' To Get To You takes the reader behind-the-scenes of Elvis? short, meteoric life and reveals his true personality.