The first step was easy.

A book editor, impressed by Jeff Chang ‘s acclaimed 2005 cultural history of hip-hop, “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop,” asked if he’d consider writing a book on Bruce Lee , the martial arts icon and movie star.

The next 99 steps? Well, that’s something altogether different.

The editor who’d pitched the biography left the publishing industry. Chang had two books already under contract to finish. More editors came and went. Another book cut to the front of the line. A fourth editor dropped the book.

In 2021, nearly 15 years after Chang originally agreed to do the Lee project, the book went out to bid again – and quickly sold again – but Chang no longer knew what he wanted to do with it.

“You know, when you do a celebrity bio there’s a certain kind of format,” he says

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