NEIL DIAMOND IS FOREVER: THE ILLUSTRATED STORY OF THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC By Jon Bream EXCITING NEW BOOK with EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS AND INTERVIEWS TELLS POP ICON’s COMPLETE “ILLUSTRATED HISTORY”

NEIL DIAMOND IS FOREVER: THE ILLUSTRATED STORY OF THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC By Jon Bream EXCITING NEW BOOK with EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS AND INTERVIEWS TELLS POP ICON’s COMPLETE “ILLUSTRATED HISTORY”

MINNEAPOLIS ? Voyageur Press has joined forces with renowned music journalist Jon Bream (Minneapolis Star Tribune) for NEIL DIAMOND IS FOREVER: The Illustrated Story of the Man and His Music. This beautifully packaged book, a perfect balance of photos and text, arrives Oct. 15, 2009, and retraces the history of this massively popular and influential singer/songwriter and performer, who has been putting on spell-binding shows for more than five decades. NEIL DIAMOND IS FOREVER is brimming with more than 300 photographs and pieces of memorabilia – including concert programs, posters from around the world, domestic and foreign 45 singles, backstage passes, ticket stubs and more. The book includes a complete album discography, commentary from dozens of admiring stars (from Paul McCartney and Barry Manilow to Kid Rock and Taylor Swift), interviews with super-producers Rick Rubin and David Foster, and previously unpublished quotes from Diamond himself. Author Jon Bream has interviewed Diamond seven times since 1976 – at least once in each of the past four decades – and has covered every Neil Diamond tour of the last 33 years, including the opening of the 2008 tour and the Grammy gala salute to Neil in 2009. The result is that NEIL DIAMOND IS FOREVER is the most complete and captivating portrait of this incomparable artist, one that captures and celebrates as never before Neil Diamond, the solitary man and the beloved superstar.

At age 68, Diamond is as popular as ever. More than 3.6 million people saw him perform during his sold-out tours of 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2008. His 2008 album, the Rick Rubin-produced Home Before Dark, became his first- ever No. 1 album in the U.S.

Diamond began in New York’s fabled Brill Building as a songwriter for others (including the Monkees) in the early 1960s before launching his own career mid-decade. A wise move, as a string of enduring classic tunes followed ? “Solitary Man,” “Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon,” “Cracklin’ Rosie,” “Song Sung Blue,” “Sweet Caroline,” “Love on the Rocks,” “America,” and so on. And who can forget Diamond’s foray into film, 1980’s The Jazz Singer, which saw Diamond share the screen with legendary actor Laurence Olivier? Often referred to as “The Jewish Elvis” by his adoring fans, Diamond has sold 115 million albums worldwide (including 48 million albums sold Stateside), and on the Billboard Charts, he is behind only Barbra Streisand (his Brooklyn school choir mate at Erasmus Hall) and Elton John as the most successful Adult Contemporary artist of all-time. In 1984, Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 2000, received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award.

In addition to the Neil Diamond book, Voyageur Press is issuing other music-related titles this fall in its ongoing “Illustrated History” book series: Jim DeRogatis’ THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: A Walk on the Wild Side hits shelves on September 15th, and Phil Sutcliffe’s QUEEN: The Crown Kings of Rock will rock you on November 15th. Both are jam-packed with photos, artifacts, and comprehensive histories of each artist.

ABOUT VOYAGEUR PRESS:

Since 1972, Voyageur Press has published high-quality books and calendars in a variety of subjects, including nature and science, regional interest and travel, American heritage and country life, crafts, sports, and more.

ABOUT JON BREAM:

Jon Bream, the award-winning critic of the Minneapolis Star Tribune since 1975, has the second longest tenure of any current daily newspaper pop-music critic in the United States. His work has appeared everywhere from the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times to Rolling Stone and TV Guide. A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Bream is the author of the bestselling biographies Prince: Inside the Purple Reign (1984) and Whole Lotta Led Zeppelin: The Illustrated History of the Heaviest Band of All Time (2008), also from Voyageur Press. Visit www.jonbream.com.

For more information on these and other Voyageur titles, go to www.voyageurpress.com.

Neil Diamond is Forever:The Illustrated Story of the Man and His Music

By Jon Bream

8.5 x 11

160 pages, 264 color photos & 27 b/w photos

$25.00, $31.99 (CAN), £16.99

ISBN-13: 978-0-7603-3675-5

Pub Date: October 15, 2009