George Stevens Jr. memoir, ‘My Place in the Sun,’ out in May

NEW YORK (AP) — The founder of the American Film Institute and son of Oscar winning director George Stevens has a memoir coming out next year. George Stevens Jr.’s “My Place in the Sun” will be published May 17.

“My great-grandmother was an actress born in San Francisco during the Civil War who started five generations of Stevenses in show business,” Stevens, 89, said in a statement Wednesday. “I’ve had a fascinating life working at the crossroads of Hollywood and Washington with captivating people. I’m a storyteller and this was an opportunity I couldn’t resist.”

Stevens’ father was known for such classics as “Shane,” Woman of the Year” and “A Place In the Sun,” from which the book gets its title. George Stevens Jr. started out as a production assistant on his father’s movie, produced documentaries for the United States Information Agency in the 1960s and was the founding director of the American Film Institute, which began in 1967. In the 1970s, he helped create the Kennedy Center Honors, lifetime achievement awards for the arts held each year in Washington, D.C.