The Name Above the Title Frank Capra New York: The Macmillan Company, 1971 Recommended by: Ron Howard Frank Capra's autobiography, The Name Above the Title was very inspirational for me. And it's a fun book. How absolutely true it is, I don't know. But it's very inspiring, and it also offers a lot of insight into the process of directing movies, the creative undertakings, interactions with powerful people, stars, and studio executives. It's a really great book, and it was a very important book for me. About the Book The legendary director of It's a Wonderful Life, It Happened One Night and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington retraces the steps that led him from Sicily, where he was born into a family of illiterate peasants, to the heights of fame and sucess as Hollywood's most popular director. To my family, I was a maverick. I was jeered at, scorned, and even beaten. But I wouldn't leave school. That meant not only paying for my own education, but putting some change in the family kitty as well. Oh, I loved my family and respected their thrift. But how could they know what I knew, that sure I was born a peasant, but I'd be damned if I was going to die one.