Most people seem to know W. C. Fields as an instantly recognizable figure, a classic icon of film comedy. But the full true account of the life and art of the clown who dubbed himself 'The Great Man' has, astonishingly, never been told. This is the first book to relate in detail William Claude Dukenfield's artistic journey ad W.C. Fields into cinema history, disentangling the facts from he pack of lies and myths mischievously nurtured by Fields himself.

Following meticulous research in a host of archives, including the personal scrapbooks if Fields himself, Simon Louvish lovingly traces the origins if Field's comedy in his self-authored vaudeville sketches, then follows his career from stage to silent screen, revealing the sources of his great Talkie routines, and highlighting his later tragic struggles (against studio heads, censorship, alcohol addiction and illness) to create some f the greatest gems of screen humour.