A Boy Named Sue Books

Cash: The Autobiography, by Johnny Cash (2003)

Published in the year of his death, this definitive autobiography begins: "My line comes down from Queen Ada, the sister of Malcolm IV, descended from King Duff, the first king of Scotland" and continues from there.

Man In Black: His Own Story in His Own Words, by Johnny Cash (1985)

Cash's first autobiography, penned in 1985, focuses on his early life, drug addictions, and June Carter.

The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein (1964)

Shel Silverstein's touching story of a tree who loved a little boy and gave everything she had to make sure he was always happy. A lesson in generosity and appreciating what you have.

Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison: The Making of a Masterpiece, by Michael Streissguth (2005)

This book gives an in-depth look at the recording of the live Folsom Prison concert and the subsequent lift it gave Cash's dwindling career. Streissguth explores his early childhood, time in the Air Force, and first record deal in context of how they helped create the man in black who would one day wow a crowd at the highest security prison in California.