''Joseph Mcbride''s book has the sweep, passion, complexity and tragic grandeur of a great John Ford film - it should be compulsory reading.'' Martin ScorseseJohn Ford''s many classic movies - among them Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - earned him worldwide praise and renown. Now Joseph McBride presents us with the definitive account of the man''s myriad complexities and contradictions, tracing Ford''s life from his modest beginnings as ''Bull'' Feeney, the nearsighted football-playing son of Irish immigrants in Maine, to his recognition, after a long, controversial, and much-decorated career, as America''s national myth-maker. This deeply insightful and impeccably documented narrative is the epic tribute that Ford''s stature merits.