The Louise Brooks Society is home to an extensive online archive whose goal is to document “all things Brooksie.” That archive includes a number of annotated bibliographies relating to the actress’ life and career, her films, and other topics. The citations found on this page date from the 1920s and 1930s. The material cited, which is arranged in chronological order, comes from books and pamphlets. Other bibliographies on the LBS website cite material from magazines and newspapers.
Bibliographies are not as dull as you might think, or fear. And what’s more, they can also make for interesting reading. This bibliography documents and helps organize material written about the actress over the course of two decades. Not only does it reference rare or little known texts, it also charts Brooks’ fame, and reveals a year-by-year, decade-by-decade history of the actress’ place in movie history.
Over the years, I’ve done a considerable amount of research, putting through hundreds of inter-library loans, scouring every accessible online database and digital archive, and personally visiting more than three dozen libraries across California and the United States, as well as the Cinémathèque Francaise in Paris, and the British Film Institute and British National Library in London. The LBS has also sought out scarce books and even acquired a few roles of microfilm in pursuit of unknown or undocumented material. [A fuller record of the research conducted by the LBS can be found HERE.] If you know of additional entries, or can provide further information on any of the citations noted on this page, please CONTACT the Louise Brooks Society. If you would like to help with the search for additional material, please check the HELP WANTED page.
Thomas Gladysz
Director, Louise Brooks Society
LOUISE BROOKS BIBLIOGRAPHIES 1920s – 1930s | 1940s – 1950s | 1960s – 1970s | 1980s – 1990s | 2000s – 2010s | 2020s – present
1920s
Haskin, Frederick. Who’s Who in the Movies. Washington D.C.: Haskin Information Bureau, 1926.
— this forty page booklet includes a very brief entry on Brooks
Overton, Grant. Mirrors of the Year. Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1927.
— though Brooks is not mentioned, her thrice-mentioned film, The Show-Off, is described as an “unsurpassed achievement” and one of the best films of the year
Tinchant, André, and Robert Florey. Adolphe Menjou. Paris: J. Pascal, 1927.
— a slim booklet on Brooks’ popular, two-time co-star, co-authored by one of Brooks’ future directors, Robert Florey; one image from Evening Clothes and three images from A Social Celebrity are included in this 63 page volume (the one image which includes Brooks is shown here below); this citation marks the Brooks’ first depiction in a book or booklet
anonymous. Picture Show Annual 1928. London: Amalgamated Press, 1928.
— hardback annual; Brooks is one of eight actresses included in a three page, illustrated piece titled “Fame Before Twenty”
Iijima, Tadashi. Shinema no eibīshī. Tōkyō: Kōseikakushoten, 1928.
— important early book on the movies whose title translates as The ABCs of Cinema; contains the chapter “Kurara Bou to Ruizu Burukkusu” (“Clara Bow to Louise Brooks”)
Uchida, Mitsuo. Eigagaku nyumon. Tokyo: Zen’ei Shobo, 1928.
— another important early book on the movies whose title translates as Introduction to Film Study; contains a frontis image of Brooks (depicted in the chapter “Louise Brooks as modan gāru”)
anonymous. Picture Show Annual 1929. London: Amalgamated Press, 1929.
— hardback annual; includes the piece “Watch Louise Walking,” as well as an illustrated feature on A Girl in Every Port
Bucher, Edmund. Film-Photos wie noch nie. Giessen: Kindt & Bucher, 1929.
— heavily illustrated book featuring movie stars of the time; among its many pieces is “Ein Wenig Louise Brooks,” an autobiographical sketch (“A Trifle by Louise Brooks”) attributed to the actress and translated into German by Lothar Wolff. The book’s end papers feature scene stills from Pandora’s Box in the form of film strips. [This title was reprinted in Germany in 1979.]
1930s
Katabe. World Movie Actor Directory. Tokyo: Movie World Co., Ltd., 1930.
— includes a brief entry on Brooks (pictured right)
Photoplay Magazine. Stars of the Photoplay. Chicago: Photoplay Magazine, 1930.
— full page portrait along with a paragraph of biographical text
Rotha, Paul. The Film Till Now: A Survey of the Cinema. London: Jonathan Cape, 1930.
— “Like Greta Garbo – Asta Nielsen, Edith Jehanne, Brigitte Helm, Herta von Walter, and Louise Brooks are almost ordinary when appearing in other films under scattered direction. But Pabst has an understanding, an appreciation of the intelligence, perhaps of culture, that builds the actual personality into a magnetic, filmic being.” These comments, among the first analysis of Brooks as a significant film personality, are followed by two pages of commentary on the actress and the two films she made with Pabst, as well as a page with two film stills from Pandora’s Box
Štorch-Marien, Otakar. Studio 1929. Prague: Aventinum, c. 1930.
— bound annual of the monthly review of moving picture art: this volume contains a few references and images related to Brooks and Pandora’s Box
Bermingham, Cedric Osmond. Stars of the Screen 1931. London: Herbert Joseph, 1931.
— contains a brief entry on Brooks
Head, June. Star Gazing. London: Peter Davies, 1931.
— an opinionated volume containing more than 1 page of text devoted to the actress: “Louise Brooks is another name which has been missing for some time from the publicity department’s books. It signified an unmistakable personality and a very decorative appearance, which, striking as it was on the screen, was even more striking off. There was a time when Louise Brooks could have fashioned her social career on lines no less promising than that of Anita Loos’ Lorelei, but she was a downright, companionable soul, as fond of an occasional party as — well, John Gilbert, and she pleased herself by marrying an unknown, unspectacular young gentleman from the Middle West or thereabouts. As for her film career — Louise Brooks was never given so much as Rin Tin Tin’s chance to act in her American productions, and therefore when Pabst, the German producer of ideas, offered her the leading role in his Pandora’s Box, Louise went happily to Europe. Pabst was so pleased with her work in his first production that he re-engaged her for his Diary. The only unsatisfactory feature of an otherwise promising little story is that both Pandora’s Box and the Diary were banned in England and the United States. Louise Brooks has now returned to Hollywood to undertake the difficult task of reengaging the attention of American producers. They, of course, are absorbed in considering the respective merits of 100 new potential stars. The most emphatic blandishments of which a publicity agent’s brain is capable will be used as a battering ram upon their responsive consciousness. And after this, the chances that Louise Brooks will never be heard of again, and that Louise Brooks will be one of the six most popular stars of 1932, will stand exactly even.”
Lejeune, C.A. Cinema. London: Alexander Maclehose & Co, 1931.
— regarding G.W. Pabst but without ever referencing Pandora’s Box or Diary of a Lost Girl, the author comments “ . . . no director on two continents has found so much personality in Louise Brooks.”
Raschig, Marianne. Hand und persönlichkeit; einführung in das system der handlehre. Hamburg: Gebrüder Enoch, 1931.
— two volume work by a preeminent German palmist: contains images and analysis of the hand prints of numerous, here mostly German, celebrities including Alban Berg, Bertolt Brecht, Marlene Dietrich, George Grosz, Emil Jannings, Käthe Kollwitz, Fritz Lang, Thomas Mann, F. W. Murnau, Max Planck, Leni Riefenstahl, Max Schmeling, Richard Strauss, and Bruno Walter, among others.
Arnheim, Rudolf. Film als Kunst. Berlin: Ernst Rowohlt Verlag, 1932.
— this classic of early film criticism contains three short passages on Diary of a Lost Girl without mentioning Brooks; later published in English as Film as Art (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957)
Bermingham, Cedric Osmond. Stars of the Screen 1932. London: Herbert Joseph, 1932.
— contains a brief biography and a photo
Hunter, William. Scrutiny of Cinema. London: Wishart & Co, 1932.
— contains passing reference to Diary of a Lost Girl
Margadonna, Ettore M. Cinema ieri e oggi. Milan: Editoriale Domus, 1932.
— Italian history of film, includes two depictions and a few mentions including the observation (here in translation) “With Louise Brooks, a misunderstood and poorly utilized American actress, Pabst has modeled this fearful creature, Lulu, with his characteristic process (also characteristic of cinema, of course) to draw from the personality and attitudes of the actor a living character.”
Bermingham, Cedric Osmond. Stars of the Screen 1933. London: Herbert Joseph, 1933.
— three references including a listing under “Stars of Yesterday” which reads, “Retired after filing her petition in bankruptcy in New York.”
Blumer, Herbert. Movies and Conduct. New York: Macmillan Company, 1933.
— sociological study of the impact of movies on youth; Brooks is twice mentioned in an autobiographical report written by a high-school girl; “Why I like my favorites? I like Joan Crawford because she is so modern, so young, and so vivacious! … Louise Brooks has her assets, those being legs ‘n’ a clever hair-cut.”
Dreier, Katherine S. Ted Shawn Der Tanzer. Berlin: Drei Masken Verlag A.G., 1933.
— Brooks is included in two group images in this rare early German pictorial
Picturegoer Weekly. Picturegoer’s Who’s Who and Encyclopedia of the Screen Today. London: Odhams Press Limited, 1933.
— encyclopedia-style work which contains a brief entry on Brooks (pictured here)
Kalbus, Oskar. Vom Werden Deutfcher Filmkunft. Berlin: Cigaretten = Bilderdienft Altona = Bahrenfeld, 1935.
— survey of German film; Brooks’ role in Pandora’s Box is referenced in the section “Das moderne Drama”
Efimov, N(ikolaj). G. W. Pabst. Moscow: Gos. ob’edinennoe izd-vo “Iskusstvo”, 1936.
— a short, 83 page Russian book with a few illustrations; pages 46 to 53 concern the two films Brooks made with Pabst, thereby making this book the first published containing an extended commentary on any Brooks’ films
Rotha, Paul. Movie Parade. London: The Studio, Ltd., 1936.
— pictorial survey; Brooks is shown in a scene from Diary of a Lost Girl; this reference was dropped in later editions of the book
Bardèche, Maurice, and Robert Brasillach (translated into English by Iris Barry). History of the Film. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1938.
— discussion of Pabst and his films including the two made with Brooks, who is not mentioned; this book – the first significant international history of film – was first published in France under the title Histoire du cinéma (1935), and in the United States under the title The History of Motion Pictures (1938).
Mantle, Burns. Contemporary American Playwrights. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1938.
— reference to Brooks in the entry on the dramatist and journalist Walter Bronson Dudley (“Bide” Dudley); “Mr. Dudley points with pride to the fact . . . that he started Norma Talmadge and Louise Brooks in pictures through newspaper publicity.”
Jacobs, Lewis. The Rise of the American Film: A Critical History. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1939.
— a single reference to Brooks as an example (along with Clara Bow, Colleen Moore, Joan Crawford, etc…) of the “frivolous, promiscuous, mocking type” with “a hard body and long, exposed legs, bobbed hair, bold eyes.”
Pasinetti, Francesco. Storia del cinema dalle origini a oggi. Rome: Edizioni di Bianco e Nero, 1939.
— this Italian History of cinema from its beginnings to today includes a few short passages on Brooks’ European films, with comments on the actress’ persona; “With straight hair, bangs on her forehead, Louise Brooks had a boyish attitude, quite similar to that of the girls of the time, the so-called flappers; she was a tomboy, and therefore the relationship between her physical personality and the character of Lulu, a feminine quintessence, was all the more attractive and disturbing.”