Louise Brooks appeared on the cover of a handful of books in the 1920s and 1930s. Most were movie tie-ins, either hardback photoplay editions or softcover fictionalizations. Among them were cover appearances on the American and English photoplay editions of Beggar of Life, by Jim Tully. The dust jackets of both of these editions can be found on the Louise Brooks Fictionalizations & Photoplay Editions page here on the Louise Brooks Society website. Another LBS page, the Louise Brooks Fictionalizations & Photoplay Editions Gallery, depicts other fictionalizations and related editions from the time, some of which depict Brooks. Be sure and check out both pages which features treasures from the Louise Brooks Society archive.
Aside from such books, the actress appeared on the covers of two other books unrelated to her films or career, each of which is shown below. They are Me Nykyaikaiset, by Warner Fabian, and Loot, by Rob Eden. Coincidentally, both authors used pseudonyms. Brooks’ appearance on the cover of each is also coincidental, and likely unintentional; what we know about each edition is noted below. If you know of additional cover appearances from the 1920s or 1930s, or can provide further information on any of the books noted here, please CONTACT the Louise Brooks Society.
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| Me Nykyaikaiset, by Warner Fabian Minerva, 1926 |
Loot, by Rob Eden Grosset & Dunlap, 1932 |
Remarkably, the first book to feature Louise Brooks on its cover was published not in the United States, but in Finland, and in 1926 — at the beginning of Brooks’ film career. That book was Flaming Youth (here titled Me Nykyaikaiset), Warner Fabian’s sensational 1923 novel about American youth during the Jazz Age. The book was an international bestseller, and it was quickly made into a popular 1923 film which starred another actress with a similar hairstyle with whom Brooks was sometimes confused, Colleen Moore (which might explain why Brooks was on the cover of this particular book). Perhaps the book’s cover artist or designer mistook one for the other, just as newspaper layout men sometimes did. [Today, this Finnish book is very rare. The only library which is known to hold a copy is the National Library of Finland.]
Warner Fabian (1871-1958) was the pseudonym of Samuel Hopkins Adams, a prolific American writer, investigative journalist and muckraker. In the 1920s and 1930s, Adams, under the Warner Fabian pseudonym, wrote several novels that were considered highly risqué. These titillating works, which featured young women and their trials and tribulations of early adulthood, became best-sellers avidly read by youth during the Jazz Age. Flaming Youth, Adams’ first novel of this sort, dealt with the sexual urges of young women and had a sexual frankness to it that was considered shocking. Because of the nature of these novels, Adams utilized a pseudonym so that his more serious works would not be tainted by scandal. A number of his novels and stories were brought to the screen, including The Wild Party (1929) with Clara Bow, and It Happened One Night (1934), with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.
Rob Eden (1892-1947) was the pseudonym of Robert Ferdinand Burkhardt, a prolific genre author whose works include Honeymoon Delayed as well as other pulp plots like The Girl with the Red Hair, Short Skirts: A Story of Modern Youth, Blonde Trouble, and In Love with a T-Man. Like Fabian, a handful of Eden’s novels were also turned into films. As Loot, a crime novel, has nothing to do with Brooks, the use of her image was likely just illustrative — something meant to draw attention to an attractive design. The copy on the front of the above dust jacket reads “Torn between loyalty to her newly found brother and love for his enemy, Robin Moore makes her choice!” The text on the inside describes this novel as a “story packed with action, mystery and drama that leads into the heart of the underworld of Chicago…. yet in the end it is a romance that comes from the welter of murder and gang warfare and violence…. You’ll love this heroine who staked her life to save her brother from the trap into which they had both fallen.” Sounds like a great read, doesn’t it!!