Louise Brooks’ one and only full-length book, Lulu in Hollywood, was published in 1982. It is a collection of seven autobiographical essays, namely “Kansas to New York,” “On Location with Billy Wellman,” “Marion Davies’ Niece,” “Humphrey and Bogey,” “The Other Face of W. C. Fields,” “Gish and Garbo,” and “Pabst and Lulu.” Each of these pieces were previously published in magazines and film journals beginning in the late 1950s. As the copyright page states, “Portions of this book appeared in different form in Film Culture, London Magazine, Image, and Sight and Sound“. A checklist of the seven pieces and their place of first publication is listed here. For an even more detailed publication history of seven pieces included in Lulu in Hollywood, see the WRITINGS OF LOUISE BROOKS page on the LBS website.
“Kansas to New York”
— passages from this essay were drawn from the unpublished 1957 essays, “Gloria Swanson” and “Une certaine idée de la liberté” [“A certain idea of freedom”], which were first published in Louise Brooks: Portrait d’une anti-star, edited by Roland Jaccard (Paris: Editions Phébus, 1977).
“On Location with Billy Wellman”
— first published in London Magazine, May 1968; also published earlier in French translation in Positif, March 1968. The English version was also published in the American journal, Film Culture, Spring, 1972; and in the UK journal Focus on Film, Winter, 1972.
“Marion Davies’ Niece”
— first published in Film Culture, October 1974.
“Humphrey and Bogey”
— first published in Sight and Sound, Winter 1966 – 1967; also published in French translation in Positif, February 1967.
“The Other Face of W. C. Fields”
— first published in Sight and Sound, Spring 1971; also published in French translation (by Jeannine Ciment) as “l’autre visage de w.c. fields” in Positif, March 1971.
“Gish and Garbo: the executive war on stars”
— first published in Sight and Sound, Winter 1958-1959; also printed as an extract from Brooks proposed book, Women in Films in Cinema, March, 1959.
“Pabst and Lulu”
— first published in Sight and Sound, Summer 1965; reprinted in Pandora’s Box, Classic Film Scripts (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971), Women and the Cinema: A Critical Anthology (New York: Dutton, 1977), and in French translation in Louise Brooks: Portrait d’une anti-star (Paris: Editions Phébus, 1977).
This first edition of the book also included an introduction by New Yorker editor William Shawn, an afterword of sorts, “A Witness Speaks,” by film historian Lotte H. Eisner, as well as a condensed filmography and numerous illustrations throughout the text. Louise Brooks selected and annotated the various portraits, publicity images, candid shots and film stills reproduced in the book. Notably, a small number of the images which she submitted were not included in the book published by Knopf.
Lulu in Hollywood was was widely reviewed and widely praised upon release. Its many positive reviews were written by the likes of William K. Everson, Herman G. Weinberg, Stanley Kaufman, David Thomson, John Lahr, James Wolcott, Michael Dirda, and John Updike. (An annotated BIBLIOGRAPHY of the book’s reviews can be found on the LBS website.) However, the book also had its critics, including Auberon Waugh, son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh, and Lawrence J. Quirk, nephew of Photoplay magazine editor James R. Quirk. Included in Barry Paris’ 1989 biography of the actress is “Appendix: Errata in Lulu in Hollywood,” which points to nearly a dozen errors in Lulu in Hollywood. The appendix states: “The major and minor errors in Lulu in Hollywood cited here have been identified by Kevin Brownlow, William K. Everson, Jane Sherman Lehac, George Pratt, Lawrence Quirk, Anthony Slide, Alexander Walker, and the author, among others.”
Today, Lulu in Hollywood is still considered a classic of film literature. In 2012, Janet Maslin wrote a laudatory piece about the book for the New York Times, stating “These eight essays are selective, nostalgic, poison-tipped and fearlessly smart. They’re sharp about Hollywood’s definitions of success and failure, about how actors are manipulated by their employers and pigeonholed by the press…. Brooks still shimmers as a rare loner who traveled down that road, her life in ruins — and then came back. This book is as idiosyncratic and magnetic as its author.” In 2023, the Hollywood Reporter ranked the book number 44 on the list of “The 100 Greatest Film Books of All Time.” And in 2024, the Los Angeles Times ranked it number 28 on its list of “The 50 best Hollywood books of all time.”
Following its initial hardcover publication by Knopf in 1982, the publisher issued the book in softcover in 1983, and again, it sold well. In 1989, Limelight Editions reprinted the book in paperback in the United States. Lulu in Hollywood has also been published in England, and in translation in a handful of countries around the world, including France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Spain, and later, Russia. The LBS website hosts a GALLERY of international editions of Lulu in Hollywood.
More than a few years ago, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist gifted me with a rare “review copy” of the original Knopf book. What set this edition apart from other 1st edition hardback copies was the inclusion of various publicity materials, such as the press release, shown below, and three different black-and-white publicity photos, one of which depicts the book cover and other two the actress / author. More than a few years after that, I was also able to acquire an uncorrected proof of the book, which was issued by Alfred A. Knopf prior to the book’s publication.
Also shown below is a rare uncorrected proof of Lulu in Hollywood, a version of the book issued by Knopf ahead of publication. (Copies, of which only a few dozen or a a hundred were print, likely went to book reviewers, sales reps, and other interested parties, such as the author.) Notably, there are a few minor differences between this version and the edition published by Knopf. The title page was revised slightly, the copyright page was significantly expanded, and Lotte H. Eisner’s piece, “A Witness Speaks,” was moved from the front of the book — it originally followed William Shawn’s introduction — to the back of the book, coming after Brooks’ chapters as an afterword.
 |
 |
| The Lulu in Hollywood press release | An uncorrected proof copy, issued by the publisher |
Sometime in the mid-to-late 1990s, Lulu in Hollywood fell out-of-print. In the year 2000, aided in part by a grass-roots campaign led by the Louise Brooks Society, Lulu in Hollywood was republished in an expanded edition by the University of Minnesota Press. The copyright page of this new edition reads, “The University of Minnesota press gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Thomas Gladysz, director of the Louise Brooks Society, in the publication of this book.” Happily, for fans everywhere, It has remained in print since.
The University of Minnesota edition was given a new look, with a redesigned front and back cover. It was also expanded and revised. The now eight essays included in this most recent edition are “Kansas to New York,” “On Location with Billy Wellman,” “Marion Davies’ Niece,” “Humphrey and Bogey,” “The Other Face of W. C. Fields,” “Gish and Garbo,” “Pabst and Lulu” and, additionally, “Why I Will Never Write My Memoirs.” The original William Shawn introduction was replaced by Kenneth Tynan’s acclaimed New Yorker profile, “The Girl in the Black Helmet”. Retained in the new edition was the original afterword by Lotte H. Eisner, “A Witness Speaks”, as well as the condensed filmography and the various illustrations.
A bit more about Lulu in Hollywood can be found on its Wikipedia page.
