Tuesday, September 22, 2009

"The Vanity"

Just finished reading "The Vanity," an unpublished story by a published writer which features a distant, almost ghostly Louise Brooks character. The story, which I enjoyed a good deal - it's a kind of gentle fantasy, reminded me of the work of Jack Finney. And what's more, the story contains a couple of incidental shout-outs to the Louise Brooks Society and myself. More on it when it gets published.
Posted by Louise Brooks Society at 9:11 PM

2 comments:

  1. I love the work you do keeping LB alive!!!!!!!!

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  2. You tease (of) Louise!

    Speaking of Jack Finney ... When "Marion's Wall" was first published in 1973, the author dedicated it to a hundred-odd film stars, more than half of whom played in silents (including Constance Bennett, Evelyn Brent, Wallace Beery, Colleen Moore, Tomacy Meighan ...). This Dedication was absent when the novel was published as one of "3 by Finney". (But "3" has "The Woodrow Wilson Dime", whose climactic scenes read like a silent comedy unfolding.)

    Speaking of books ... and vanity ... I've been revisiting the case of the two covers for the Russian "Lulu in Hollywood" (February 17, 2009 LBS Blog). The publication data at ozon.ru/context/ detail/id/4262556/ and ozon.ru/context/detail/id/ 4251062/ give them a common ISBN (sequence, not format!?¿), press run (2,000), and size, but different lengths. The last can be explained by the four 16-page inserts of photographs: counted for one book, uncounted with the other. If both covers were published, is there a Russian əBay? ... Tsk, tsk: On the paste-up cover, they dropped the first "movement" from the essential quotation, "The great art of films ...". I preferred that cover at first ... but it could give the impression Brooks wrote essays in her twenties (and slept at Walden) (no typewriter). They certainly chose two of her more mistressy looks. I now like the settee cover, for its forthright honestly. HONESTY!

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