Want to learn more about Louise Brooks and her life and films? Looking for something interesting to read? To date, the Louise Brooks Society has published five books. Each is the product of considerable research, and each features dozens of images.The books shown below may be purchased online (via amazon.com, Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, etc…), or through select retail shops in the United States such as the George Eastman Museum (Rochester, NY) or Larry Edmunds (Hollywood, CA). Additionally, autographed copies of each of these titles may be ordered directly from author Thomas Gladysz, the Director of the Louise Brooks Society. To place an order for a signed book, please send an email to louisebrookssociety AT gmailDOTcom Thank you for your interest. Your purchase helps support the Louise Brooks Society. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond
by Thomas Gladysz
(softcover) published in 2023
Louise Brooks, the Persistent Star
by Thomas Gladysz
(softcover) published in 2019
— This 296 page book brings together 15 years work by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society. Gathered here are a selection of articles, essays, and blogs about the silent film star. The actress’ best known films — Beggars of Life, Pandora’s Box, and Diary of a Lost Girl — are discussed, as are many other little known aspects of Brooks’ legendary career. These pieces range from the local (“Louise Brooks, at the corner of Brooklyn Avenue and 16th Street”) to the worldly (“Making Personas: Transnational Film Stardom in Modern Japan”), from the provocative (“A Girl in Every Port: The Birth of Lulu?”) to the poignant (“Homage to George W. Lighton of Kentucky, idealistic silent film buff who perished in the Spanish Civil War”), from the quirky (“Louise Brooks’ First Television Broadcast”) to the surprising (“A Lost Girl, a Fake Diary, and a Forgotten Author”). Also included are related interviews with actor Paul McGann, singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, and novelist Laura Moriarty, author of The Chaperone…. with dozens of illustrations. [This WorldCat page shows libraries that carry this title.]
“Historian Thomas Gladysz has put together a number of his articles and essays from the past 15 years for the book Louise Brooks: The Persistent Star. Gladysz is the director of the Louise Brooks Society, and his detailed essays will be fascinating reading for any fan of the iconic actress.” — Lea Stans, Silentology
“… this (fully illustrated) book proves that ‘the persistent star’ is a perfect accolade.” — Tara Hanks, author of The Mmm Girl and Wicked Baby
Beggars of Life: A Companion to the 1928 Film
by Thomas Gladysz
(softcover) published in 2017
“I can say (with head bowed modestly) that I know more about the career of director William A. Wellman than pretty much anybody … but there are things in Thomas Gladysz’s new book on Wellman’s Beggars of Life that I didn’t know. More important, the writing is so good and the research so deep that even when I was reading about facts that were familiar to me, I was enjoying myself hugely.” — Frank Thompson, author of Nothing Sacred: The Cinema of William Wellman
“This highly readable book will deepen your enjoyment and understanding of a silent Hollywood classic.” — Pamela Hutchinson, author of Pandora’s Box (BFI Film Classics)
Now We’re in the Air: A Companion to the Once Lost Film
by Thomas Gladysz
(softcover) published in 2017
The Diary of a Lost Girl “Louise Brooks edition”
by Margarete Bohme (author) and Thomas Gladysz (editor, introduction)
(softcover) published in 2010
— The 1929 film, Diary of a Lost Girl, is based on a controversial and bestselling book first published in Germany in 1905. Though little known today, it was a literary sensation at the beginning of the 20th century. By the end of the 1920s, it had been translated into 14 languages and sold more than 1,200,000 copies – ranking it among the bestselling books of its time. Was it – as many believed – the real-life diary of a young woman forced by circumstance into a life of prostitution? Or a sensational and clever fake, one of the first novels of its kind? This contested work – a work of unusual historical significance as well as literary sophistication – inspired a sequel, a play, a parody, a score of imitators, and two silent films. The best remembered of these is the oft revived G.W. Pabst film starring Louise Brooks.
This corrected and annotated edition of the original English language translation brings this important book back into print after more than 100 years. It includes a long introduction by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society, detailing the book’s remarkable history and relationship to the 1929 silent film. This special “Louise Brooks Edition” also includes more than three dozen vintage rare illustrations. [This WorldCat page shows libraries that carry this title.]
“In today’s parlance this would be called a movie tie-in edition, but that seems a rather glib way to describe yet another privately published work that reveals an enormous amount of research and passion.” — Leonard Maltin
“Gladysz makes an important contribution to film history, literature, and, in as much as Böhme told her tale with much detail and background contemporary to the day, sociology and history. This reissue is long overdue, and a volume of uncommon merit.” — Richard Buller, author of A Beautiful Fairy Tale: The Life of Actress Lois Moran
LOUISE BROOKS BROADSIDES
Between 2000 and 2001, the LBS produced a series of 10 limited edition, autographed broadsides featuring the work of various authors with whom I worked during my time as a bookseller in San Francisco. Five of those broadsides relate to Louise Brooks, with one issued in conjunction with a LBS co-sponsored event; these five include a Barry Paris prose excerpt, a Bill Berkson poem, and a triptych of three poems by Mary Jo Bang, each of which were included in her book, Louise in Love (Grove Press, 2001). Each was printed off-set on thick watercolor paper run though a laser jet printer. As of 2023, a few copies of each broadside remain for sale, direct from Thomas Gladysz; the cost is $25.00 apiece (including shipping), except for the Mary Jo Bang triptych, which sells only as a set for $60.00 (including shipping).
| “Bubbles” by Bill Berkson |
“The Diary of a Lost Girl” by Mary Jo Bang |
“She Loved Falling” by Mary Jo Bang |
“Louise in Love” by Mary Jo Bang |
“Louise Brooks” by Barry Paris |
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| edition of 50 signed copies | edition of 15 signed copies | edition of 15 signed copies | edition of 15 signed copies | edition of 75 signed copies |
FORTHCOMING BOOKS / PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED
Lulu in America: the Lost History of Louise Brooks and Pandora’s Box
by Thomas Gladysz
(softcover) coming in 2025
— Today, Pandora’s Box is considered one of the great films of the silent era, as well as a masterpiece of Weimar cinema. It is still regularly screened around the world, and still makes best-of lists in publications like the Guardian and Sight & Sound. Film critics such as David Thomson, Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael have all sung its praises, as have film makers like Quentin Tarantino, who a few years back named it one of his favorite films. However, it wasn’t always a celebrated masterpiece. Pandora’s Box has, in fact, experienced one of the more troubled exhibition histories of just about any film of its time. In the United States, this little-documented history includes censorship, wholesale cuts, damning reviews, and “adults only” ads which screamed “Sin Lust Evil!”
Lulu in America: the Lost History of Louise Brooks and Pandora’s Box explores the film’s rich, textured and improbably undocumented history. This is a book that will surprise. Please watch this page for further updates.
Around the World with Louise Brooks
by Thomas Gladysz
(softcover, two volumes) coming in 2026
— Louise Brooks was known by many names: in Czechoslovakia she was Louise Brooksová, in Latvia Luīze Bruksa, in Russia Луиза Брукс, and in Spain the more familiar Luisa Brooks. Around the World with Louise Brooks is a groundbreaking, two-volume, multilingual look at the life and career of a truly international movie star. This heavily illustrated, 900+ page two volume work looks at the career of an American film star not through American sources, but through the collective voice of the world. Here is the iconic actress as she was seen not only in Germany and France – the two countries where she made her best films, but also in Japan (where she was the subject of a cult following) and some four dozen other countries across the globe, from Brazil and Cuba to China and Poland to nation-states which no longer exist (Danzig) and countries yet to be born (Vietnam).
Volume One: The Actress looks at how Brooks was promoted and perceived across the globe, with special chapters focusing on Canada, Japan, and New Zealand.
Volume Two: The Films documents where and when and under what titles Brooks’ films were shown — from grand movie palaces in Berlin and Bombay to humble open air spaces in Singapore and Darwin, Australia.
A note from the author: Much but not all of the work on this massive, two volume, previously announced work is done. However, I decided to put it aside to deal with a couple other projects, namely the now published The Street of Forgotten Men: From Story to Screen and Beyond, and another book project which has drawn my focus, Lulu in America: The Lost History of Louise Brooks and Pandora’s Box. Please watch this page for further updates.