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 2000s and 2010s. 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 as well as, increasingly, popular culture.
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
2000s
Bachardy, Don. Stars in My Eyes. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.
— contains drawings of and diary entries about the actress by Don Bachardy, a world-renown portrait artist
Brooks, Louise. Lulu in Hollywood. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000.
— contains “On Location with Billy Wellman,” “Marion Davies’ Niece,” “Humphrey and Bogey,” “The Other Face of W. C. Fields,” “Gish and Garbo,” “Pabst and Lulu,” “Kansas to New York” and “Why I Will Never Write My Memoirs.” This edition includes an introduction by Kenneth Tynan (“The Girl in the Black Helmet”) and an afterword by Lotte H. Eisner (“A Witness Speaks”)
Elsãsser, Thomas. Weimar Cinema and After: Germany’s Historical Image. London and New York: Routledge, 2000.
— contains a handful of references to the actress, as well as the chapter “Lulu and the Meter Man: Louise Brooks, G.W. Pabst and Pandora’s Box”
Jaccard, Roland. Une fille pour l’été. Paris: Zulma, 2000.
— includes a short chapter, “Quand Louise Brooks rencontre Pabst a la gare de Berlin”
Jacobsen, Wolfgang, Hans Helmut Prinzler, and Werner Sudendorf. Filmmuseum Berlin. Berlin: Nicolai, 2000.
— includes text and numerous images from Brooks’ time in Germany
Morandini, Morando. Dizionario dei film. Bologna, Italy: Zanichelli, 2000.
— includes brief entries on a few of Brooks’ films, including When You’re in Love, which it describes as “Penultimo film di L. Brooks.”
Pendergast, Tom and Sara Pendergast. International Dictionary of Film and Filmakers, volume 1 Films (fourth edition). Detroit and London: St. James Press, 2000.
— sections Pandora’s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl; Brooks also appears on the cover
Positif. revue de cinéma. Paris: Jean Michel Place, 2000.
— Brooks appears on the cover of this collection of issues May 1956 to November 1959
Schönfeld, Christiane. Commodities of Desire: The Prostitute in Modern German Literature. Columbia, South Carolina: Camden House, 2001.
— contains Margaret McCarthy’s “The representation of prostitutes in literature and film: Margarethe Bohme and G. W. Pabst”
Waldman, Harry. Missing Reels: Lost Films of American and European Cinema. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co, 2000.
— includes a one and one-half page entry on Just Another Blonde
McCormick, Richard W. Gender and Sexuality in Weimar Modernity. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
— contains discussion of Pandora’s Box, along with other references to Brooks
Simpson, Paul. Rough Guide to Cult Movies. London: Rough Guide, 2001.
— contains an entry on Pandora’s Box
Whitehead, Mark. Jack the Ripper. London: Pocket Essentials, 2001.
— contains an entry on Pandora’s Box
Cooke, Paul. German Expressionist Films. London: Pocket Essentials, 2002.
— contains an entry on Pandora’s Box
Elsaesser, Thomas. Weimar Cinema and After. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.
— contains a handful of references to the actress, as well as the chapter “Lulu and the Meter Man: Louise Brooks, G.W. Pabst and Pandora’s Box”
Fairservice, Don. Film Editing: History, Theory, and Practice: Looking at the Invisible. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 2002.
— contains eight pages of material on Diary of a Lost Girl
Maddex, Alison. Sex in the City: An Illustrated History. Universe Pub., 2002.
— a few references and a nude image of Brooks
Anderson, Karen M. Billing below title the contested autobiographies of Frances Farmer and Louise Brooks. Huntington, West Virgina: Marshall University, 2003.
— unpublished Ph.D thesis; “Today autobiography and memoir hold great interest for the average reader as well as the literary scholar. Some argue this form has replaced the novel as the dominant modern/postmodern narrative expression. Its study crosses departmental boundaries, surfacing in disciplines such as psychology, as well as English/literature. This thesis focuses on the autobiographies of two Euro-American actresses of the early twentieth century. Intersecting the study of film, narrative, autobiography (‘female’ or feminist, as well as canonical or ‘male’) and modernism, it focuses on text and subtext, analyzing reasons for both the works’ and actress/authors’ cultural marginalization. In art as well as life, Frances Farmer and Louise Brooks offer aspects of both the ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ — whether speaking of narrative structure or assigned gender roles in a given culture. Ultimately, however, canonical ‘male’ aspects of the autobiographical genre present themselves in their works as filtered through a more ‘female’ – centered lens.”
Curtis, James. W.C. Fields: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.
— discussion of Brooks and her role It’s the Old Army Game
Humm, Maggie. Modernist Women and Visual Cultures : Virginia Woolf Vanessa Bell Photography and Cinema. Rutgers University Press, 2003.
— 6 references and a photo of Brooks
Prawer, S. S. The Blue Angel. London, England: BFI Publishing, 2003.
— contains brief discussion of Pandora’s Box in relation to The Blue Angel
Berndt, Henry. Der Einfluss Des Mythos Der Pandora Auf Frank Wedekind Und Georg Wilhelm Pabst. GRIN Verlag GmbH, 2004.
— a chapter and multiple references to Brooks role as Lulu in Pandora’s Box
Conway, Kelley. Chanteuse in the City: The Realist Singer in French Film. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
— contains a seven page section on Prix de Beauté, as well as other references and images
Enciclopedia del cinema. Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 2004.
— the 6th volume of this encyclopedia contains Paolo Cherchi Usai’s article on Die Buchse der Pandora
Bradley, Edwin M. The First Hollywood Sound Shorts. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2005.
— contains brief discussion of Windy Riley Goes Hollywood along with a related entry on Brooks
Ethaire, Etienne. Casting. Liège, Belgium: Le Somnambule équivoque, 2005.
— a collection of portraits constructed in the manner of a film in which the author pays tribute to various actresses through a series of anecdotes evoking the volcanic smile of Louise Brooks or the glimpsed breast of Elodie Bouchez
Jaffin, Léone. Le Pot-Au-Feu De Mary Meerson. Différence, 2005.
— three references to Brooks in this book about Henri Langois’ partner
McCarty, John. Bullets Over Hollywood: The American Gangster Picture from the Silents to “The Sopranos”. London: Perseus, 2005.
— includes about a page on The City Gone Wild
Morandini, Morando. Dizionario dei film 2006. Rome: Zanichelli, 2005.
— contains an entry on The Canary Murder Case, which includes discussion of an Italian TV version of the story directed by Marco Leto in 1974
Cowie, Peter. Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever. New York: Rizzoli, 2006.
— pictorial work also published under the same title in German translation (Schirmer Mosel, 2006)
Krenn, Günter, and Karin Moser. Louise Brooks: Rebellin, Ikone, Legende. Wien: Verlag Filmarchiv Austria, 2006.
— contains numerous illustrations and pieces about Brooks by Kevin Brownlow, Lucie Herrmann, Wolfgang Jacobsen, Gerald Koll, Daniela Sannwald, Frank Stern, Jan-Christopher Horak, Annemone Ligensa, and the editors, and a filmography by Peter Spiegel; there are also six letters by Brooks to Lotte Eisner, and a few letters by Brooks to Fritzi Striebel and Guido Crepax
Hoeppner, Klaus. City Girls: Frauenbilder im Stummfilm. Berlin: Bertz + Fischer, 2007.
— contains numerous passages about Brooks, as well as a two page chapter on the Love Em and Leave Em; the actress also appears on the front and back covers of the book; accompanying this publication was another 96 page catalog of films, which included Love Em and Leave Em
Jaccard, Roland. Portrait d’une flapper. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2007.
— Brooks appears on the cover of this slim volume
Mildner, Susanne. Konstruktionen der Femme fatale: die Lulu-Figur bei Wedekind und Pabst. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2007.
— includes discussion of Brooks role as Lulu in Pandora’s Box
Rocco, Vanessa. Louise Brooks and the “New Woman” in Weimar Cinema. New York: International Center of Photography, 2007.
— exhibit pamphlet with material on the two Pabst films
Aron, Paul, Paul Delsemme, and Jean-Pierre Devroey. Denis Marion: pleins feux sur un homme de l’ombre. Bruxelles: le Cri, 2008.
— contains an account of the letters exchanged between Brooks and Denis Marion, a journalist
Israel, Lee. Can You Ever Forgive Me? Simon & Schuster, 2008.
— an account of the author having forged letters by Brooks and others
Bock, Hans Michael. Concise Cinegraph. Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2009.
— an encyclopedia of German film; Pabst and Brooks appear on the cover, and there is material on the two films the actress made with the director
2010s
Böhme, Margarete. The Diary of a Lost Girl. San Francisco: PandorasBox Press, 2010.
— illustrated “Louise Brooks edition” of the book that served as the basis for the 1929 film, with an introduction detailing the book’s history and relation to the Brooks film
Wahl, Jan, and Louise Brooks. Dear Stinkpot: Letters from Louise Brooks or, My Education with Lulu. Albany, GA: BearManor Media, 2010.
— letters between the film star and the author
Dixon, Bryony. 100 Silent Films. London: BFI Publishing, 2011.
— includes Beggars of Life and Pandora’s Box
Garnier, Philippe. L’oreille d’un sourd. Paris: Editions Grasset & Fasquelle, 2011.
— includes a four-plus pages on Beggars of Life
Graves, Tom. My Afternoon with Louise Brooks. Memphis, Tennessee, Rhythm Oil Productions, 2011.
— an account by the author of the time he met Brooks
Kermode, Mark. The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex: What’s Wrong with Modern Movies? London: Random House Books, 2011.
— includes a passage on Beggars of Life by the English film critic and member of the Dodge Brothers
Isherwood, Christopher. Liberation Diaries.Volume Three: 1970-1983. HarperCollins, 2012.
— contains a few references and entries on Brooks
Otto, Elizabeth, and Vanessa Rocco. The New Woman International: Representations in Photography and Film from the 1870s Through the 1960s. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2012.
— contains material on Brooks
Young, Jordon R. Academy Award Losers. Past Times, 2012.
— Brooks is referenced and pictured on the cover
Balsom, Erika. Exhibiting Cinema in Contemporary Art. Amsterdam University Press, 2013.
— references and a cover appearance
Prinzler, Hans Helmut, and David H. Wilson. Sirens & Sinners: a visual history of Weimar film, 1919-1933. London: Thames & Hudson, 2013.
— sections on the two films Brooks made with Pabst
Eyman, Scott. John Wayne: The Life and Legend. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014.
— includes background information on Overland Stage Raiders
Ritzenhoff, Karen A and Catriona McAvoy. Selling Sex on Screen: From Weimar Cinema to Zombie Porn. Rowman and Littlefield, 2015.
— multiple references and two images of Brooks
Wellman Jr., William A. Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel. New York : Pantheon Books, 2015.
— includes material on the making of Beggars of Life
Donnelly, K. J. and Ann-Kristin Wallengren. Today’s Sounds for Yesterday’s Films: Making Music for Silent Cinema. Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
— contains material on Brooks and Beggars of Life
Gladysz, Thomas. Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film. San Francisco: PandorasBox Press, 2017.
— the making of film, with a foreword by the director’s son, William Wellman Jr.
Gladysz, Thomas. Now We’re in the Air: A Companion to the Once “Lost” Film. San Francisco: PandorasBox Press, 2017.
— includes the story of the film’s discovery in the Czech Republic, the British and Spanish fictionalizations, etc…
Gallagher, John Andrew, and Frank T. Thompson. Nothing Sacred: The Cinema of William Wellman. Asheville, NC: Men With Wings Press, 2018.
— includes material on the making of Beggars of Life
Gladysz, Thomas. Louise Brooks, the Persistent Star. Sacramento, CA: PandorasBox Press, 2018.
— articles, essays, blogs and interviews, with some touching on Brooks’ European films
Hutchinson, Pamela. Pandora’s Box. London: Palgrave and British Film Institute, 2018.
— first ever study of the film; reissued with a different, illustrated cover depicting Brooks in 2020
Als, Hilton. White Girls. Penguin Books, 2019.
— contains a section on Brooks