Legend of Zorro

by Bill Yenne

This book pretends to look at Zorro's several pop culture incarnations.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Bill Yenne is the author of several novels and over three dozen books on historical topics. He has also been a contributor to encyclopedias of both world wars.

The New Yorker wrote of Sitting Bull, his biography of the great Lakota leader, that it "excels as a study in leadership." This book was named to the number 14 spot among Amazon's 100 Best Books of the Year.

Library Journal observed that "enthusiastic World War II readers will be drawn to" his dual biography, Aces High: The Heroic Story of the Two Top Scoring American Aces of World War II.

Recently, his book Convair Deltas was named as Book of the Month by Air Classics, while his book Tommy Gun was named Pick of the Month by Shooting Illustrated.

His book Guinness: The 250 Year Quest for the Perfect Pint was listed among the top business books of the year by Cond Nast Portfolio Magazine, which rated Yenne's tome as its TOP pick for "Cocktail Conversation."

Yenne's Rising Sons: The Japanese American GIs Who Fought for the United States in World War II, was praised by Walter Boyne, former Director of the National Air & Space Museum, who called it "a fast moving... page turner," and the "best book yet written on the saga."

The Wall Street Journal wrote, when reviewing his Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West, that Yenne writes with "cinematic vividness," and says of his work that it "has the rare quality of being both an excellent reference work and a pleasure to read."

The author lives in San Francisco, California, and on the web at www.BillYenne.com

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Reviews

[Michael P. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is simply incompetent in several ways. There are errors, half truths that give false impressions, and statements made out of context that unintentionally misinform. There are facts repeated multiple times, once three times on the same page. This is bad writing, bad editing, and bad copy editing. The style is juvenile, with eye-rolling constructions such as calling Zorro "the American Pimpernel" instead of Zorro. The art program is terrible, with illustrations too often in the wrong place, and the captions are badly written and less informative than they should be. There are illustrations that ought to be included, but are not. Several questions are raised by the text that are not answered, such as why Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. left the most recent ZORRO TV series after one season and was replaced by Henry Darrow. A competent writer and caption writer would have learned the name of Patrice Camhi's brother and used it instead of three times referring to this actor as "Patrice Camhi's brother." His name is Benito Martinez, and he is pretty damn well known today.

Worst of all is that book seems to have been made to publicize that last TV series, and was probably subsidized by the production company. If correct, this explains why a series (1990-3) of such modest domestic success dominated the book, receiving a third of its pages and why the rest of the Zorro story has so many gaps in it. This book should embarrass everyone associated with it.

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

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