Selected Bibliography
Below, listed in chronological order, are books about and related to Buster Keaton that I have enjoyed over the years. (This list is by no means objective or comprehensive; a more thorough list can be found by clicking here to go to The International Buster Keaton Society, also known as the "Damfinos.") I've already been told by a hard-core Keaton buff that some of these books are ill-regarded by real Keaton fans; on this basis, nobody has written a "true" Keaton bio. (Even the Blesh book, in which Keaton participated, helped to establish some of the Keaton "myths.") I stand by my list; caveat emptor. -- Steve Bailey, Webmaster
Agee on Film: Criticism and Comment on the Movies, James Agee. Re-printing, Modern Library, 2000. A compilation of reviews and essays from Agee, one of the most respected critics of the 1940's and '50s (and screenwriter of The African Queen and Night of the Hunter). It was Agee's seminal essay on the silent-film years, "Comedy's Greatest Era," that was partially responsible for re-interest in Keaton's work in the 1950's.
Keaton, Rudi Blesh. MacMillan Publishing Co., 1966. Published shortly after Keaton's death, this benefits from Keaton's participatory interviews. Some of the book comes off as a little precious (Keaton's second wife, Mae Scriven, is referred to as "Susie," perhaps for legal reasons), and it often ignores some unfortunate facts (such as Keaton's inferior MGM movies being more financially successful than his independent features). Nevertheless, it offers much from the master's point of view.
The Silent Clowns, Walter Kerr. Alfred A. Knopf, 1975. Lavishly illustrated in coffee-table-book style, with very insightful commentary and studies of Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon, Laurel and Hardy, and many other, lesser-known silent-movie comedians.
Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie Down, Tom Dardis. Penguin Books, 1979. Another interesting Keaton bio, best known for its debunking of some of the myths that Keaton himself established and/or embellished in Rudi Blesh's book.
The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies, by Gerald Mast. The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc., 1979. I usually turn up my nose at professorial analyses of comedy movies, but Mast has some insightful comments on the subject, from the earliest comedies up to Mel Brooks and Airplane! The book's chapters on Keaton and his contemporaries are especially illuminating.
Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase, Marion Meade. HarperCollins, 1995. Published in the centennial year of Keaton's birth, this book has -- in the words of Patricia Eliot Tobias, head of the Damfinos -- "been rather thoroughly discredited by all reputable Keaton scholars." For a long time, I sailed against the tide and recommended the book because it seemed well-researched to me. But when the head of the Damfinos trashes a Keaton bio, you should listen. I hereby mention the book only in the interest of completeness for my bibliography.
Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton, John Bengtson. Santa Monica Press, 2000. An astoundingly researched book in which the author sought out locations originally used in Keaton films and compares them via stills from the movies versus how those exact locations look today. An endless source of fascination for the contemporary Keaton viewer. (The book's corresponding website can be found at: http://www.busterkeaton.com/Silent_Echoes/sehome.htm)
Buster Keaton Remembered, Eleanor Keaton and Jeffrey Vance. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001. A beautiful book in every sense, cataloguing Keaton's movie and TV career with concise reviews and a priceless collection of Keaton photographs, rare and otherwise. It was also a labor of love for Keaton's widow Eleanor, who contributed a touching text and worked on the book up until the day she died. One of the best-ever Keaton bios.
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