Even as a teenager, Kubrick was documenting his world through photography. When he sold his first photograph at age seventeen, Kubrick had already begun to tell a story through his pictures. Without any formal education in filmmaking, Kubrick taught himself through photography and by spending many hours in his Bronx, New York, neighborhood movie theater.

After a few years as a professional photographer, at the age of twenty-one, Kubrick financed and created his own short film Day of the Fight completely by himself. Distributed by RKO, Kubrick's work earned a small advance, which he used to continue making films until his first Hollywood success, The Killing. Kubrick would soon take on more controversial and shocking projects, gaining the distinction of receiving an X rating for his uncompromising look at violence in A Clockwork Orange.

The author's critical eye examines each of Kubrick's films from early works, Fear and Desire and Killer's Kiss, to bigger productions, Spartacus, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, to seminal masterworks 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket. The author's own expertise allows him to focus on the director's technique and character from the viewpoint of the writers and actors who worked with him.

Through diligent research, the author gives us Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Peter Sellers, Jack Nicholson, and Matthew Modine providing insightful impressions of Kubrick on the set. This first full-length biography of the master director defines and exposes the enigma that is the legendary Stanley Kubrick and places him in his unique position in the context of film history.