In May 2019, Backbeat Books published "A Voice of the Warm: The Life of Rod McKuen" by Barry Alfonso. This was the first in-depth biography of McKuen. In his introduction to the book, singer and music historian Michael Feinstein wrote that McKuen's life and work held a significant place in pop culture: " knew how to create something that made a reader or listener say, 'That’s me.' Like Gershwin’s, his work is a document of the time in which it was created. But what he did also transcends that time and still speaks fundamentally to the things that matter to people: romance, relationships, the human condition. Those things don’t change. He used the vernacular of his time to reach the widest audience. But at its essence, his work is still valid and, I think, timeless."