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The One Hundred Greatest Books, Vol. 7 The Cassette Library.Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austin, 2 tapes. Read by Jane Austen. ... Read more

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Through both his fiction and non-fiction writing, James Welch gives voice to the history, heritage, and cultural identity of the American Indian. This companion provides a fascinating exploration of the man, his writing, and the impact and influence of his literary output. With information based on a series of personal interviews conducted for this book, the biographical chapter offers an insightful account of Welch's life as a Blackfoot Indian, and as a poet and novelist. ... Read more

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This is a collection of studio pictures - stills, portraits and staged "off-set" publicity photographs - which celebrate exotic matinee idols of the silent era such as Rudolph Valentino, through to today's international superstars, including Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford. The complementary text encapsulates each star's special appeal and looks at how perceptions of the male hero have changed over the last 80 years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Enjoyable Photographs, Third Rate Writing
Published in 1985, LEADING MEN is a coffee table book in classic style: oversized and containing numerous photographs.

The book opens with a brief foreword by Jane Russell and longer introduction by author Julie Welch.It then breaks into six parts: The Silent Era, The Studio Years, The War Years, The Fifties, The Sixties, and Modern Times--the latter focusing on actors who were at their peak in the 1970s.Welch offers a brief introduction to each section and a general biography of each star.

While no book of this sort can hope to fully encompass its subject, Welch makes some very odd choices.Silent film has long been famous for its master comics, but you will find nothing of Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, or Arbuckle here.Indeed, Welch gives comic actors little concession, ignoring The Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Abbott and Costello, and Martin and Lewis entirely.She equally ill-disposed toward western stars, making no mention of Tom Mix, Randolph Scott, Roy Rogers, or Audie Murphy--and reducing John Wayne to precisely one photograph and one paragraph.At the same time, she gives space to a number of truly obscure actors (when is the last time you heard any one mention Michael Wilding or David Hemmings?) and several European actors who, while famous indeed in their own countries, never obtained wider notice.

Welch's biographies are poorly researched.In discussing Gene Kelly, for example, she mentions THE PIRATE as one his great screen hits, when in truth it received mixed reviews and performed poorly at the 1948 box office.She is also dodgy with her facts, never mentioning that Ramon Novarro was homosexual and prefering to write that David Niven died of a "wasting disease" than simply note that he died from ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease--and one has to wonder if she actually knew anything about Novarro's sexuality or Niven's cause of death in the first place.This aside, her tone of voice is chatty without being in the least amusing, entertaining, or interesting, and the book has been badly proofed, if indeed it was ever proofed at all.

Still, where this sort of book is concerned, it is really the photographs that count.All photographs are black and white; all are handsomely reproduced; all are either studio portraits or lifted directly from film.It's nice to flip through.At the same time, however, I cannot say that any of these photographs are unique.The same photographs--or if not precisely the same then ones very much like them--are available here, there, and everywhere.Even so, it is nice to find them in a single collection, and I give this book three stars on that basis.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer ... Read more

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SF/F ANTHOLOGY - Rating: R ... Read more