Oprah

Oprah Winfrey spent a quarter of a century hosting what may be the most influential talk show in television history, coaxing celebrities and ordinary guests alike into talking about their love lives, their painful pasts, their mistakes and their private demons. She also shared her own story with viewers, speaking about the sexual abuse she suffered, her relationships, her struggles with weight, her spiritual beliefs, her charitable giving and her opinions on the state of the world. It is fair to ask whether anything about her remains untold.

Kitty Kelley thinks so. She is known for unauthorized biographies of figures such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, the British Royal Family and the Bush family, and here she turns the same scrutiny on Winfrey. Her aim is to test the stories Oprah has told about herself against the record and to look at the life behind the public image.

To do that, Kelley interviewed family members and business associates and gathered court records, birth certificates, financial and tax documents, and copies of the strict confidentiality agreements Winfrey's organization is known for requiring. The result is a detailed examination of the whole of Winfrey's life, from her origins to her rise as a media power.

The book allows that Winfrey is an important and perhaps great figure of her era, but argues that greatness deserves close examination, and that myth and hype must be separated from fact. Kelley sets out to show both sides of her subject, offering a probing and carefully researched portrait for readers curious about the real person behind one of the most famous names in America.