In this full-scale, in-depth biography of Steven Spielberg, Joseph McBride reveals hidden dimensions of the filmmaker's personality and shows how deeply personal even his most commercial work has been. With the same breadth of research and clarity of insight that characterized his acclaimed biography of Frank Capra, McBride has gone in search of the true Steven Spielberg, interviewing more than 325 of the director's friends and associates, many of whom had never spoken about him before.

Drawing a vivid and highly detailed portrait of Spielberg's extraordinary childhood and his early amateur filmmaking, McBride uncovers the cultural and personal influences that came together to form Spielberg's artistic personality. McBride traces Spielberg's evolution from an introverted social outcast into the precocious talent who won a contract with Universal at age twenty-one.

Steven Spielberg: A Biography explains how Spielberg's ambivalent attitude toward his Jewish heritage and painful experiences with anti-Semitism during adolescence turned him toward popular filmmaking by impelling him to seek approval from the widest possible audience.

Perceptively analyzing Spielberg's work, McBride shows how the filmmaker transformed his own fears and obsessions into films that have entertained millions of people throughout the world. Eventually, Spielberg's artistic ambitions became unmistakable in such powerful but uneven films as The Color Purple and Empire of the Sun, until finally, with Schindler's List, Spielberg's emotional candor and courage yielded what is widely acknowledged as a cinematic masterpiece.