A while ago, following up on something I’d read at the Dope, I bought Eve’s book Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara. It went into my to-be-read pile, where it languished for some months while I worked my way down through previous purchases.
Then yesterday evening I started into it. And couldn’t stop (except for necessities) till I’d finished it, far later than I’d intended to be off to bed. It was well-written, full of early film history without a whiff of dustiness, illustrated with a marvelous collection of images, and best of all, took the Theda Bara I’d known only from campy college posters and revealed the delightful, complex woman behind the image.
Well! Not only did you rob me of some sadly needed sleep, Eve, but you’re about to dip into my wallet! Yes! A quick check at Amazon.com reveals you have four more books I can get my hands on! Well, all right, two of them have co-authors, so perhaps I can restrain myself, but the lives of Anna Held and Jean Harlow are yours alone, so buy them I must.
Drat you, Eve! Now my to-be-read pile will grow even larger, its long-term inhabitants pushed even farther back from my perusal. Drat you to Heck, New Jersey!
Welcome to the cult ETF! I’ve read all of Eve’s books and they are fabulous. I highly recommend Platinum Girl. I was not a fan of Harlow’s before reading it, but now I am.
Why should I shell out money for Eve’s Harlow book when I already have Irving Shulman’s?
::: ducking and running very fast :::
In all seriousness, I read Vamp from the library before I got involved with the Dope and knew that Eve was Eve. Gave it to a friend to read and bought my own copy and made something of a hobby of noting the times Eve was quoted in other books I own (I think it was up to 5 at last count). Finances have dictated that I spend most of my spare funds on such luxuries as winter fuel but I have not one but two copies of the Twisted Sister CD to return (it was the gift of the season this year) so between the two I may have enough scraped together to buy another.
Ooooh, I am so teeckled pink mitt delight that I will suggest you bypass Amazon and get cheap second-hand copies at bookfinder.com. None of my books were “coauthored,” actually. Bob King wrote the intro to Golden Images, a collection of magazine articles on silent movie stars; and I gave Kay Kendall’s sister Kim (a very nice gal) coauthor credit on that book as I really couldn’t have done it w/o her cooperation.
So glad you like my books! Now, off to Amazon with you to write lovely lovely things about them!
I’ve already gone back to Amazon and bought your Jean Harlow and Anna Held books. But I did use their bookseller partner program to find good-quality used books, in fact got a better price by a buck (from the same seller) on the Jean Harlow one than what bookfinder.com offered.
I do feel just a teensy bit guilty at depriving you of the munificent royalties that buying the new copies through Amazon would have provided, but since you yourself have invited me to take such advantage, well, I’ll gladly seize upon the ex post facto rationalization for it.
Reviving this to report that the books have arrived, they’ve taken up spots in the queue right behind my current book, Geisha by Liz Dalby, and Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (I just saw the movie), and best of all there’s a lovely picture of Eve in the end-flap “About the author” in each book! Hotcha hotcha, Eve, baby!
I loved Vamp. I’d never even heard of Theda Bara before, have never seen a silent movie, but by the time I was done reading, I felt the same regret Eve felt over the loss of many of her films.
If it weren’t for Eve’s enthusiasm, I never would have given those old, old movies a try. Once I tried a few, though, I was enthralled and had to have more. So I blame Eve for my tragic, doomed crush on Louise Brooks.
I was hugely disappointed to find out the pregnancy she aborted in 1953 was not Prince Phillip’s, as had been rumored. Were I a bit less scrupulous . . .
I’ve read all of Eve’s books and they are fabulous. I highly recommend Platinum Girl. I was not a fan of Harlow’s before reading it, but now I am.
