D. W. Griffith Books

Review of Oglesby book

Oglesby's "Dinner With D. W. Griffith And Other Memories" surely is both a literary and social history masterpiece. This is anything but the typical "coming of age" memoir -- largely because of the quality of its writing - although surely it presents many of the usual child-to-adolescent transitions. "Dinner" for me brought back a host of time-and-place memories, sweet in their intimately recalled details and the richness of the prose, without being sickly overwritten.
As to the social history, Oglesby's memoir sketches the life of an American boy growing up in, and affected by, the Great Depression and World War II without his awareness of their lasting changes. The place was Louisville, "Gateway to the South," where first-hand memories of the Civil War still remained in the 1930s and 40s. Not the least of these is the author's recollection of a famous cousin at a family reunion, captured in the book title.
There are views of social and cultural institutions long gone from the American scene: genteel fortune tellers, orphanages, amusement parks reached by electric streetcars, the Ohio River flood of 1937 - probably the nation's most serious until the 2005 inundation of New Orleans - of a child's perceptions of civilian life downsides in a war, and, finally some of the peculiar social rituals of high school students in that time and place.
If there is a flaw with "Dinner," it is simply that there is not enough of it. At 120 pages, it could well be twice as long and therefore twice as enjoyable a read.

Everyone will have a favorite from this collection of sixteen stories covering people and events in the childhood and teenage years of author Joseph Woodson Oglesby. Mine is "The Two Faces of Love". But it's difficult to choose. The stories tracing his complex relationship with his father--"Tiger in the Alley", "The Great Flood", "Buttons", and Black Market Spy"--are all quite moving. Perry, his ally and best friend at school who lives in an orphanage, makes a poignant appearance in "The Tin Boy". Each of these stories contains a moment of strong emotion--a "growing up moment"--that shaped the author's life.
We see a cousin, early Hollywood director D. W. Griffith, make a dramatic appearance at a Sunday dinner, which ends in an uproar. Another cousin is a suspect in one of the most sensational murder cases in the state. In "The Death Sentence", the young Oglesby is forced to carry a weight almost to heavy to bear.
The writer grew up in Louisville and nearby towns. He writes in a clear and honest yet lyrical style that is easy to follow. Photos or other graphics accompany each story, making the characters he reveals and the events he chronicles even more real.
No one else can lay claim to these memories, but this collection may stir a lot of readers to recall people and events in their own lives, no matter where or when they were born or who their relatives and friends were, that helped shape their lives.
I highly recommend DINNER WITH D.W. GRIFFITH AND OTHER MEMORIES. It's a beautiful book.

The Brakhage Lectures are a collection of avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage's reflections on the techniques and contributions to cinematic evolution of four major directors-- Georges Melies, D W Griffith, Carl Dreyer and Sergei Eisenstein. It was first published in May 1972 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where Brahkage taught and delivered these lectures (or rudimentary forms of what turned into these writings) during the fall and winter semesters of 1970-71. The book is 106 pages in length, 23 of which are taken up by reproductions of photographs and film stills. It includes a breif foreword written by the poet Robert Creeley.

Brakhage has produced a lot of writing, but most of it reflects upon own aesthetic process. Occasionally he turns his thought toward the work of his compatriots in the avant-garde-- as he does in FILM AT WIT'S END.

As a document of Brahkage's thoughts about the more tradition cinema, with which he had little to do, BRAKHAGE LECTURES is a fascinating artifact. Brakhage's Romantic construction of the genius of these filmmakers and his insistence upon finding meaning in the most minute details of their lives provides a more telling portrait of the author than of his four subjects. The various essays are also riddled with insightful obsvervations which demonstrate both Brakhage's knowledge of film history and the discourses which penetrate it. As a text on film theory, it is less relevant-- there are many better published works on all of these directors.

"The Griffith Project" is an ongoing series that aims to provide "a systematic analysis of all the films in which [D.W.] Griffith was involved, from his debut as performer in PROFESSIONAL JEALOUSY (1907) to THE STRUGGLE (1931), his last feature."

Detailed information is presented for each film: credits, plot synopsis, excerpts from contemporary sources, and expert commentary. While clearly aimed at a scholarly audience, the language is completely accessible and laypeople should not find the material intimidating. Indeed, anyone with an abiding interest in Griffith will be captivated by this series. Just about the only deficiency is the lack of screenshots, though I understand that an entire volume may be devoted to these at the close of the series.

Contributing to Volume 5 are Paolo Cherchi Usai, Richard Abel, Eileen Bowser, Ben Brewster, Tom Gunning, Steven Higgins, Lea Jacobs, J.B. Kaufman, Charlie Keil, David Mayer, Russell Merritt, Scott Simmon and Kristin Thompson.

Films covered in Volume 5 are Fisher Folks, His Daughter, Heart of a Savage, Conscience, Was He a Coward?, Teaching Dad to Like Her, Lonedale Operator, Spanish Gypsy, Broken Cross, Chief's Daughter, Knight of the Road, Madame Rex, His Mother's Scarf, How She Triumphed, Two Sides, In the Days of '49, Enoch Arden (parts 1 & 2), New Dress, White Rose of the Wilds, Romany Tragedy, Crooked Road, Smile of a Child, Primal Call, Jealous Husband, Indian Brothers, Her Sacrifice, Thief and the Girl, Blind Princess and the Poet, Fighting Blood, Last Drop of Water, Bobby the Coward, Country Cupid, Out from the Shadow, Sorrowful Example, Ruling Passion, Rose of Kentucky, Stuff Heroes Are Made Of, Swords and Hearts, Dan the Dandy, Squaw's Love, Revenue Man and the Girl, Eternal Mother, Italian Blood, Old Confectioner's Mistake, Making of a Man, Her Awakening, Unveiling, Adventures of Billy, Long Road, Battle, Love in the Hills, Trail of Books, Through Darkened Vales, Woman Scorned, Miser's Heart, Failure, Sunshine Through the Dark, As in a Looking Glass, Saved from Himself, Terrible Discovery, Tale of the Wilderness, Baby and the Stork, Voice of the Child, For His Son, Old Bookkeeper, Sister's Love, Billy's Stratagem, Blot in the 'Scutcheon, Transformation of Mike, Root of Evil, Sunbeam, String of Pearls.

While this book was really written for college reference libraries, the serious silent film buff will certainly find it fascinating. This book covers all of the short films that D.W. Griffith directed between January 1909 and June 1909. At this point in his career, he was producing at least two films a week! Of course some of them were made just to get a reel out the door, and others were small works of art that he really put his heart into. As a general rule, these films are not as interesting as the Biograph films he made in 1912 and 1913, but there are still a few gems from this period, like THE LONELY VILLA and THE COUNTRY DOCTOR.

Each film entry includes credit information, a description from the "Biograph Bulletin", a story outline, and a critical commentary written by a film historian. The commentaries point out how Griffith was growing as a film-maker, as well as his struggles to learn the "language" of film editing. The books in this series are required reading for anyone who really wants to know about Griffith's early career.

An intricately informative piece of work, giving the reader all that is required in the subject. I wish more people would write with the same information quantity and quality.

I have used previous editions in my practice with great success. I was hoping to get the latest edition with this book. However, to my surprise, the alternative title of this book is "Instrucciones para los Pacientes." Although I received this Spanish Language edition by mistake, I will keep it and put it to good use in my practice.

This is the most amazing treatise on financial risk management I have ever read!!!

Dave Blackwell is an absolute f-ing genius!!!!

I believe this book captures the mindset of D.W. Griffith. It allows the reader to look into the mind of D.W. Griffith. A must read.

The number of conditions included in the book is very good. The organization makes it easy to find what you are looking for. The use one page per condition is easy for storing and printing, but I do wonder what has been left out for the sake of saving pages. I havn't looked that deeply into this yet. Still, the one page format is very handy. I also like that the pages are perforated especially now that I have tried the CD and found it lacking. This is the reason for the poorer than usual score I gave. The CD page won't maximize on my desktop and I am looking at a 5x5 inch square rather than a full screen. No biggy, really, but when I did my first printing, "Acne" prined 3 pages (the 3rd page had only one line on it). I compared the printed pages to the information in the book on the "Acne" page and found it to be identical in content, and of course more compact. The printing format is not like the one page book format; only the removable book pages are on one page. So for me, the CD could be better and print out single pages if that is all the information anyway. And, it would be nice to not have to load the CD every time you need it, rather, you could load a program on the computer and use that instead. But all in all, the book does what it is intended to do and is more effecient than gathering and editing all of your own patient education, which is what I was previously doing and found that much too time consuming. This book does save time.

This is a valuable resource for any doctor's office. I use it every day. It is very clearly and logically written.

This series of books have been very helpful in my practice. I currently use the 6th edition. I was excited that the Spanish translation for handouts is included on the CD-ROM. However, there is one crucial difference: With the 6th edition the contents can be INSTALLED on your computer (and the CD then stored). Then topics can be searched and printed per PDF files/Acrobat reader. In the 6th edition, each topic print out is ONE page. HOWEVER, with the 7th edition, the CD-ROM MUST BE in the cd drive to work. This ties up that drive and is very inconvenient in a busy practice, if you have other uses for that drive. In the 7th edition, the printouts can be THREE pages long, consuming much more paper!

Intended to be a compendium of handouts for physicians to give to patients, Griffith's Instructions provides information on a wide variety of illnesses. From croup to tooth grinding, this book covers maladies both small, i.e. indigestion, and large, i.e. congestive heart failure, in a consistent, matter-of fact presentation. All of the perforated, pull out discussions include basic descriptions of the illness, including the frequent signs and symptoms, a brief synopsis of possible causes, risks, preventative measures, expected outcomes, and possible complications. Treatments are also discussed through both general measures and medications with notes on recommended activity and diet. The 6th edition revises and updates all of the problems that patients regularly bring to their doctors discussed in the 5th edition and adds more than twenty new ones.

Extensive appendices provide diets, including the latest food pyramid guidelines, daily values, nutrition data and specific diet regimes. There are also a plethora of diagrams and instructions for wellness, such as how to perform breast and testicular self-exams. Unlabeled diagrams of the body, ranging from eye to the endocrine system (both male and female) are also provided.

This book was great way to see what the early days of movie-making were like. It was a valuable tool for a history paper on which I received an A. Its richness of detail really helped me with the amount for research I needed to do for the class and it was an entirely enjoyable read to boot. I hope the publisher will reprint this book. I hate to think that people like the fabulous Miss Gish will be forgotten.

By today's standards, Lillian Gish's performances in silent film seem mannered--but during the 1910s and 1920s they were nothing short of revolutionary, for unlike most actors of the era Gish was determined to perform in as natural a manner as possible. In doing so, she literally pioneered screen acting technique as we now know it, and it would be extremely difficult to over-estimate her artistic impact.

Although Gish worked with numerous directors over the course of her extremely long career, she is most specifically remembered for her association with D.W. Griffith, whose pioneering silent films firmly established what Gish would describe as "the grammar" of modern cinema. As one might guess from its title, a good portion of THE MOVIES, MR. GRIFFITH, & ME is devoted to Griffith, and it offers a first-hand account of Griffith, the challenges he faced, and the evolution of film from extremely primitive one-reels into a sophistocated art form during the 1910s; those interested in film history will be particularly fascinated by Gish's accounts of the filming of two landmark silents, BIRTH OF A NATION and INTOLERANCE.

Other star autobiographies frequently turn into kiss and tell sagas, but Gish is extremely respectful of those she describes and discreet about her private life to a remarkable degree; consequently, THE MOVIES, MR. GRIFFITH, & ME is less the story of a life than it is the story of a career. But what a career it was! The tone of the book is at once lady-like but extremely readable, and even those who have little interest in the early days of the motion picture industry will find it fascinating stuff. This is an extremely readable book--but it is also an extremely important historical document as well, and the fact that it is out of print is appalling. If you have any interest in the history of motion pictures, you cannot afford to miss this book. Seek it out and keep it handy on the shelf, for it is strongly, strongly recommended.