His two-volume biography of Elvis Presley, "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley" in 1994, followed by "Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley" in 1999, placed the story of Presley's career into a rise and fall arc. Encompassing more than 1,300 pages (including 1,150 pages of text), the work was an in-depth, scholarly examination of Presley's life and music. Guralnick previously wrote about Presley in the 1976 first edition of "The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll"; his article has been reprinted in each subsequent edition. He also contributed the complete text for the 240-page hardcover book accompanying the 2010 30-disc CD boxed set, "The Complete Elvis Presley Masters".