"Known as the "Master of Suspense," Alfred Hitchcock was a prolific film director whose work spanned six decades and included more than fifty feature films. His hard work and commitment to his craft began at the University of London in 1916, where he developed skills in drawing and design that he would later apply to his work as a silent film title card designer for the British branch of the American film company Famous Players-Lasky. This role helped Hitchcock break into the film industry; after the branch closed in 1922, he worked as an art director, production designer, editor, writer, and assistant director on films for independent producers. Hitchcocks solo directorial debut The Pleasure Garden released in 1925, but it was not until the 1927 release of The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog that his career began to take off. The Lodger was Hitchcocks first thriller, establishing his prowess in the genre he would become best known for with films such as Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), and The Birds (1963). Hitchcocks work was met with great success and critical acclaim, earning him six Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, a BAFTA Fellowship, multiple lifetime achievement awards, induction into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the preservation of nine of his films in the United States National Film Registry. In A Century of Hitchcock, author Tony Lee Moral chronicles the directors career "from his early innovations in silent cinema in Germany to his golden age as a Hollywood icon." Writing on the hundredth anniversary of Hitchcocks first film and the fiftieth anniversary of his last, Moral reflects on Hitchcocks contentious legacy in the context "of contemporary discussions about gender, power, and the ethics of artistic genius.

" Using previously unpublished interview transcripts and archival materials as evidence, Moral seeks to challenge and recontextualize the portrayal of Hitchcock as abusive and manipulative that has been perpetrated by biographer Donald Spoto and other historical accounts. A Century of Hitchcock invites readers to think critically about the "human complexities of collaboration" and the dangers of relying on a single biographical narrative"-- Provided by publisher.