The Louise Brooks Society is home to an extensive online archive whose goal is to document “all things Brooksie.” That archive includes a number of annotated bibliographies relating to the actress’ life and career, her films, and other topics. The citations found on this page date from the 1940s and 1950s. The material cited, which is arranged in chronological order, comes from books and pamphlets. Other bibliographies on the LBS website cite material from magazines and newspapers.
Bibliographies are not as dull as you might think, or fear. And what’s more, they can also make for interesting reading. This bibliography documents and helps organize material written about the actress over the course of two decades. Not only does it reference rare or little known texts, it also charts Brooks’ fame, and reveals a year-by-year, decade-by-decade history of the actress’ place in movie history and popular culture..
Over the years, I’ve done a considerable amount of research, putting through hundreds of inter-library loans, scouring every accessible online database and digital archive, and personally visiting more than three dozen libraries across California and the United States, as well as the Cinémathèque Francaise in Paris, and the British Film Institute and British National Library in London. The LBS has also sought out scarce books and even acquired a few roles of microfilm in pursuit of unknown or undocumented material. [A fuller record of the research conducted by the LBS can be found HERE.] If you know of additional entries, or can provide further information on any of the citations noted on this page, please CONTACT the Louise Brooks Society. If you would like to help with the search for additional material, please check the HELP WANTED page.
Thomas Gladysz
Director, Louise Brooks Society
LOUISE BROOKS BIBLIOGRAPHIES 1920s – 1930s | 1940s – 1950s | 1960s – 1970s | 1980s – 1990s | 2000s – 2010s | 2020s – present
1940s
Brooks, Louise. The Fundamentals of Good Ballroom Dancing. Wichita, KS: privately printed, 1940.
— self-published a 36-page instruction booklet
The Film As Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art Film Library and the H.N. Wilson Company, 1941.
— a more than 700 page international bibliography compiled by workers of the Writers’ Program of the Work Projects Administration, with a foreword by Iris Barry; the index includes numerous citations for G.W. Pabst, some of which reference the two films the director made with Brooks, but only one for Brooks herself, whose name is included in the credits to The Show Off under dramatic works adapted for the screen
Charensol, Georges. Panorama de Cinema. Paris: Les Editions Jacques Melot, 1947.
— a passing mention, ” . . . Louise Brooks, a la fon ingenue et femme fatale (A girl in every port) sont pourtan Americaines” or “Louise Brooks, the ingenuous woman and femme fatale in A Girl in Every Port.”
Fernández Cuenca, Carlos. Historia del Cine. Madrid: Afrodisio Aguado, 1948.
— Spanish history of film includes a portrait of Brooks as well as a scene still and comments on Brooks’ films, appearance, and persona; “Beautiful Louise Brooks always styled with her peculiar black bangs that gave her a perennially childish air . . . [whose] perverse rampant sexual passion destroys the many lives surrounding her, in the end destroying her own.”
Manvell, Roger (editor). Experiment in the Film. London: Grey Walls Press, 1949.
— Pandora’s Box is mentioned in Ernst Iros’ essay, “Expansion of the German and Austrian Film,” who notes it “. . . had an exceptionally strong effect thanks to the compelling performances by Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer and the excellent, very much underrated Carl Götz.”
Jeanne, Rene and Charles Ford. Histoire encyclopedique du cinema. Paris: R. Laffont, 1947-1962.
— includes a few mentions of Brooks in this 4 volume history of cinema
Lapierre, Marcel. Le cent visages du cinéma. Paris: Bernard Grasset D.L., 1948.
— includes a section on Diary of a Lost Girl
Wollenberg, H. H. Fifty Years of German Film. London: The Falcon Press, 1948.
— contains one still and a passing comment: “Possibly the most impressive film in this category appeared shortly before the end of the era of the silent film in 1929: Wedekind’s Pandora’s Box, directed by G.W. Pabst.”
Sadoul, Georges. Histoire du Cinema Mondial. Paris: Flammarion, 1949.
— mention of Brooks in relation to her films with Hawks and Pabst; Sadoul refers to Brooks as “fascinating” and “unforgettable”
1950s
Taylor, Deems. A Pictorial History of the Movies. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1950.
— revised and enlarged edition of the classic pictorial survey originally published in 1943; Brooks is shown in a publicity shot from Beggars of Life which, it is noted, “differed from the average ‘sync’ picture in that it had several sequences of actual dialogue”
Eisner, Lotte H. L’écran démoniaque: les influences de Max Reinhardt et de l’expressionnisme. Paris: Editions André Bonne, 1952.
— this classic work on the silent German cinema (published in a revised edition in 1965, and then in English translation in 1969 as The Haunted Screen: Expressionism in the German Cinema and the Influence of Max Reinhardt, and later in Spanish as La Pantalla diabolica: Panorama del Cine Clásico Alemán) contains numerous references to Brooks, along with a chapter titled “Pabst and the Miracle of Louise Brooks”
D’Amico, Silvio, etc…. L’Enciclopedia dello spettacolo. Rome: Casa editrice Le Maschere, 1954.
— entry on Brooks by Francesco Savio (volume 2); Brooks is also referenced in the entry on Pabst (volume 7)
anonymous. Dizionario Enciclopedico Italiano. Rome: Instituto Della Enciclopedico Italiano, 1955.
— brief entry in general interest Italian encyclopedia; see volume 2
Farnsworth, Marjorie. The Ziegfeld Follies. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1956.
— Brooks is pictured
Riess, Curt. Das Gab’s Nur Einmal: Das Buch Der Schönsten Filme Unseres Lebens. Hamburg: Verlag der Sternbücher, 1956.
— passing mention of Brooks and her role in Pandora’s Box in this somewhat nostalgic, post-war look at “beautiful films” from, largely, the period before the second World War
Castello, Giulio Cesare. Il Divismo: mitologia del cinema. Torino: Edizioni Radio Italiana, 1957.
— three page discussion of Brooks in the chapter titled “Veneri e altre divinità dell’amore” (“Venuses and other love goddesses”)
Griffith, Richard and Arthur Mayer. The Movies. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1957.
— Brooks is pictured twice in the chapter entitled “But Flaming Youth Flamed On”
Kyrou, Ado. Amour-erotisme et cinema. Paris: Terrain Vague, 1957 (revised edition, 1967).
— classic book by the Greek-born French critic; contains a chapter on the actress entitled “Louise Brooks, La Plus Belle” – as well, a caricature of Brooks is included on the book’s cloth binding, beneath the dust jacket
Lacalamita, Michele. Film Lexicon Degli Autori E Delle Opere. Rome: Edizioni di Bianco e Nero, 1958.
— full page entry by on Brooks by Tino Ranieri in volume 1; Brooks is also referenced in the entry on Pabst in volume 5
Billard, Pierre. Vamps. Levallois, France: Société d’Éditions, 1958.
— a handful of references and images of Brooks are included in this pictorial volume
Borde, Raymond, and Freddy Buache. Le cinéma réaliste allemand: études et documents. Lausanne, Switzerland: Cinémathèque suisse, 1959.
— contains a 13 page chapter on Pandora’s Box, as well as a page of film stills
Castello, Giulio Cesare. Augusto Genina, 1892-1957; mostra personale. [Venezia, Italy], 1959.
— on the director of Prix de Beauté
Franklin, Joe. Classics of the Silent Screen. New York: Citadel Press, 1959.
— contains a full page appreciation, with two illustrations; William Everson served as research assistant on this popular book
Shawn, Ted. Thirty-three Years of American Dance (1927 – 1959) and The American Ballet. Pittsfield, Massachusetts: Eagle Printing and Binding Company, 1959.
— Brooks is pictured in a scene from the Denishawn dance “Feather of the Dawn”