My new edition of The Diary of a Lost Girl got a nice write up in today's Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. The article is by Jack Garner, the newspaper's longtime film critic (he also knew Louise Brooks, and wrote the foreword to the Peter Cowie book, Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu). Garner wrote:
A RARE BOOK tie-in. The idea of book tie-ins to movies is well known. But it's not every day that a 1929 film generates the reissue of a book. Yet that's the case with Margarete Bohme's The Diary of a Lost Girl, which was originally published in 1905.
The surprising reissue in 2010 is the brainchild of Thomas Gladysz, a San Francisco journalist and director of the Louise Brooks Society. Fans of Brooks, the beautiful silent film star who finished out her years in Rochester, may recognize the title. The Diary of a Lost Girl was the second of two masterpieces she filmed with Germany's G. W. Pabst in the late '20s. It followed the legendary Pandora's Box into theaters. (Both films are available on DVD — and highly recommended.)
Bohme's book caused a sensation at the early part of the last century, telling in diary fashion the story of an abused young woman who ends up a prostitute. It sold 1.2 million copies, making it one of the best-selling books of its time.
Read today, it's a fascinating time-trip back to another age, and yet remains compelling. As a bonus, Gladysz richly illustrates the text with stills of Brooks from the famous film, and also includes an introduction. The book's available at amazon.com, pandorasbox.com/diary.html, or at the Eastman House gift shop.
2 comments:
"anyone who has achieved excellence in any form knows that it comes as a result of ceaseless concentration..."
congratulations on yours!
“The Louise Brooks Edition” has prime real estate in the George Eastman House gift shop, standing on the wall people pass by to get to the Dryden (and the bathrooms).
"Diary of a Lost One" was previously mentioned in the Democrat and Chronicle in 1912, when Burke, FitzSimons & Hone (Rochester's first department store) advertised the title among some seven dozen "Books for Christmas Gifts / in the basement / Popular Copyright Books of Fiction / Clever stories, all handsomely bound. Formerly published at $1.20 to $1.50 per volume. NOW 50¢" (50¢ then is like $11 today). Among those that would become (silent) movies: A Fool There Was, The Squaw Man, White Fang, Brewster’s Millions, Tess of the Storm Country.
"Shop Early / Early in the day when stocks are straight and crowds are absent."
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