Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema Book

Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977), an immortal of the silver screen, was perhaps the greatest comic genius the world has known. To this day his beloved creation the Tramp remains the most universal representation of humanity in the history of film. Noted film historian and silent-comedy authority Jeffrey Vance has drawn on exhaustive research and interviews with those who knew Chaplin to produce this definitive illustrated account. Composed with full access to the Chaplin family archives, the book chronicles his entire complex life story and his creative process in 500 photographs, many of them rare and recently discovered, newly printed from the original negatives especially for this volume. Describing the appeal of the Tramp, Chaplin wrote: "This fellow is many-sided-a tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure." The description also befits the artist himself, who endured a deprived childhood in late-Victorian London, numerous romances and four marriages, and political persecution during the anticommunist witch hunts, while leaving a legacy of 75 remarkable years of creative accomplishment. This third Abrams book by Jeffrey Vance on silent-film comedians coincides with the major international video/DVD release of newly restored Chaplin films.Read More