Item added to cart
Film
Introduction by Kenneth Tynan
The collected writings of this icon of the silent era, in a new, more complete edition.
Louise Brooks (1906-1985) is one of the most famous actresses of the silent era, renowned as much for her rebellion against the Hollywood system as for her performances in such influential films as Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl. Eight autobiographical essays by Brooks, on topics ranging from her childhood in Kansas and her early days as a Denishawn and Ziegfeld Follies dancer to her friendships with Martha Graham, Charles Chaplin, W. C. Fields, Humphrey Bogart, William Paley, G. W. Pabst, and others are collected here. New to this edition is the revelatory Why I Will Never Write My Memoirs by Brooks and The Girl in the Black Helmet by Kenneth Tynan, which brought about the revival of interest in her work and was the best discussion of Brooks's film work to appear in her lifetime.
The writing is assured, graceful, and magnetic; the life the dancer-actress-author describes makes most fiction trivial by comparison. . . . This is no ordinary collection of gossipy memoirs. It is a tour de force, as history and as a searching study of human nature. Publishers Weekly
Brooks is brilliantly perceptive and articulate on everything from the art of film directing to the comedy of W. C. Fields. New York Times
A minor classic. Film Quarterly
Translation Inquiries: Alfred A. Knopf
Copyright © 2018 - 2024 ShopSpell