Mae West Books

Carol M. Ward's "Mae West A Bio-Bibliography" published in 1989 offers an excellent starting point for the Mae West Scholar. Ward provides a wide range of sources to delve into how the popular press perceived Mae West, however, the list is far from exhaustive and now somewhat dated.
Ward's text is invaluable in this age of "cyber research." Nothing beats the old fashioned method of researching - pouring over microfilm and old magazine clippings, and Ward's meticulous citations point the way for serious West buffs to find out more about her.

This book is quite expensive but after all it was written mainly for academic libraries, not really for purchases by the general public. If you want a standard "biography" with a ton of photos and a dust jacket, this is not for you. If you are interested in a serious examination of this one-of-a-kind star, you could not do better. Several other authors have tried to do this with more mainstream books on West, but Ward is unmatched in looking at West from the eyes of a historian and a critic. She is also clearly admires West's accomplishments but is never fawning. An outstanding work.

This is a bio-bibliography. So everything you read, you can verify by finding the original somewhere. Wonderfully researched, and of course perfectly accurate (how could it NOT be?). You are paying for all of the great research, and it is worth every penny. It is invaluable to anyone who is writing a book on Mae West, or researching her career.

This doll and collection of Mae West costumes should be at the top of your list if you love the CLASSIC films of Mae West, and absolutely drooled over everything she wore.

The detail reflects Tom Tierney at his best, and takes me back to happy days spent as a teen endlessly designing paper doll costumes based on the fabulous fashions of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

This book absolutely belongs in your collection if you love great Hollywood style!

"Mae West Paper Doll" by Tom Tierney is among this artist's best works. It is reminiscent of his earlier titles, such as the "Marilyn Monroe Paper Dolls" and "Rudolph Valentino Paper Dolls".

The portrayal of Mae West is very lifelike, and the detail and colours of the costumes are outstanding.

This is a paper doll I would highly recommend to all paper doll enthusiasts as well as to fans of costume design.

A vivid chronicle of the heartbeat of America as glimpsed thorugh the daily life in small towns.

Clifton C. Edom founded the Missouri Photographic Workshop in 1949. Through his work with the workshop he became known as the father of photojournalism education. An instinctive alchemist and catalyst, he was less a teacher than a dominating presence. Cliff Edom presented his last workshop in 1990 shortly before his death. Nothing is forever, but the Missouri Workshop lives on in is image.

'Small Town America' seems an obvious choice for a photobook title but I doubt there has been anything published as good as this since Sherwood Anderson's 1940 'Home Town'. The 215 black and white photos reflect life in rural Missouri from the early fifties to the late eighties and it is all student work. In case this puts you off remember that these students had the benefit of some remarkable faculty members, Russell Lee for instance was part of the team for many years and his boss at the FSA, Roy Stryker taught in 1949 and 1957.

Visually the book is divided into four chapters, On Main Streets, Heart of the Country, A Place Called Home and chapter four has three photo essays covering a Joplin school in 1962, the Hannibal flood of 1986 and a family in Neosho during 1981. The three main chapters nicely run the photos out of date order though it seems to me that the earlier photos reflect the photojournalism techniques of the thirties and forties with their content-rich imagery. One of the really great ideas about Photo Workshop was that each year a different location was chosen so that the students were not photographing in the same place each year.

Look through the book several times, as I have over the years and you'll get a clear impression of small town America with a very human face. The book was published in 1993, perhaps it's time for an update to see how the students have seen rural Missouri since then and in color.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

This is a book Mae West tried to have stopped because she wanted a cut of the money. It went through THREE different editions! FILLED with photos and every saying she ever said, it is highly recommended.

I love this book and have worn out my original! It exemplifies just how quick-witted and lyrical Miss West was. Every page drips with her saucy sayings and gorgeous and alluring photos. Even if someone is not a Mae West fan, she will appreciate her wit and he will appreciate her beauty.

"It's not the men in my life that counts- it's the life in my men."

...
Hello, my name is Heather, I have become enamored of this man.

Derek Taylor, I mean; his work, his manner, his mantality
(Yes, the spelling is correct.)
And I've never met him before.
And I never will. *grin*
But that's not the point, is it? The point is
to enjoy people like this, wherever they
can be found---And you?

And I post this on Valentines' Day. *laugh* Which I do not
believe in. I don't think Derek Taylor did either. The idea of
only ONE day of love expressed...

is abhorent. *grin*

Here, we have, exhibit A: a guy who influenced the Beatles, hung
with them, helped with them, and I find nothing, when I come
looking for him.

Well, guess what? This book rocks. And the prose, and the people
Derek talked about--people, yes, so many people--and the
insights, are as swift and as bright and as deep as a new
thought, in the dark.

Who'd've thought I'd go looking, for the first time, in my life, for the Beatles, and find this guy.

Amazing. You should read him.
As he sure as hell read
all of YOU *grin*

Find this book. Get this man's work seen.

I thank you.

Meanwhile, read this piece, that I wrote, after searching for Derek. You may just like it.

+++

Billions and billions of Beatle pictures. You can't see the fawking ROAD for Beatles pictures. Every once in a while though I'd find Derek. Hiding on a page. Standing so close, so intent, so integral to the mood, you almost wondered why you hadn't seen him more often in all those BLOODY photos. Needless to say, he (and others like him) had been cropped from view. We're here to see the Beatleboys, not the Beatleaides, not the Beatlekeepers, not the Beatle people so essential to the smooth-running operation that most fans didn't even know who the hell they were.

Only that they often stood as a roadblock, a deterrent, a buffer to Beatle-baked people who clamoured for yet another BLOODY photo, yet another autograph, yet another insightful interview, yet another money-making endorsement, yet another banal or boring conversation with their Beatle boygods.

Meanwhile, people like Derek Taylor provided an attempt at clarity, a soothing song in the ever-widening gyre of madness that hurricaned about them; a smoke-festooned-and-Scotch-laced Alka Seltzer to the moptop FabFour sanity and sense of self.

It wasn't just Derek. Without Brian Epstein, Peter Brown, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall or even George Martin, I don't think the Beatles would have existed.

Oh, they'd be out there somewhere, playing in a dingy Cavernlike club. But I don't believe they would have reached the almost mythic proportions of pop/rock stardom they enjoyed (even to this day) without the incredibly devoted, rational and skilled people backing them up, holding their drunken heads or taking a punch for the Beatle benefit. Less insightful folks might feel otherwise, but if you look close, REAL close, you can see a pattern in the chain of command that surrounded these lovely lads from Liverpool.

And standing close by, cigarette barely dangling from his lips, his expression so dark, so unaffected was Derek. Derek's dark eyes always watching, watching. Exuding calm. (Whether he felt calm or not.) To be found in a photo. More than just a confidante; more than just a majordomo; more than just a father-figure to four cheeky chappies from a small seaport in the British Isles, Derek was their friend. He carried insights into each and every Beatle boy that shown through every press release he ever composed. He'd be on hand for all the cheer and all the paranoid doomsaying. Following George out a flashbulbed front door; standing protectively within shielding distance of any one Beatle that was about; striding through an airport walkway, like a military sergeant in a dark sharp-shouldered Savile row suit, offsetting Paul and John's white ones; leaning against an Apple-rotting rooftop wall, dressed in a caramel-coloured car coat, listening in a reverie to one last let-it-be concert from those Beatle boys he so adored; uncropped from a classic Beatle photo (There is a photo of Paul and his then girlfriend Jane Asher, returning from holiday in the Virgin Islands. I found a photo where Derek is walking along right beside Jane. Ha!)...there he is. Derek Taylor.


You should know this man. And be inspired by his words. As I am.

Derek, speaking, on The Beatles: http://www.beatlesagain.com/bvoices/derek.ram
(from Beatlesagain.com)

Derek, "As Time goes by" excerpt from a sixties memoir http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob19.html
(from "You are the Plastic Ono band" website http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob00.html )

Derek, autobiography, that I have yet to find: http://www.jadebox.com/nilsson/fiftyyrs.gif
(image from Harry Nillson's website http://www.harrynilsson.com/article19693.html )

Mae West considered writing her autobiography as early as 1957 and several publishing houses had already approached her. A flood in the mid-thirties destroyed documents of her early vaudeville appearances stored in the basement of her Hollywood apartment building, The Ravenswood, and other papers stored at her ranch house were eaten by rats.
Since arriving in Hollywood, her film career had been well-documented, but West had only a faint recollection of what happened and where. She asked Larry lee, who assisted her with the novelization of "Diamond Lil" to research her early stage career. Lee suggested they try writing a few chapters to see how things went. Eventually Stephen Longstreet, an author who ghosted other star biographies came on board to help West pull together her book, and was given credit for his "editorial assistance." West apparently supervised everything and pointed out, "Nobody can write about me except me," a remarkable feat considering she barely completed the third grade.
The driving force in West's decision to pen her memoirs was that someone else might try to write an unauthorized account of her life and there wasn't much she could do about it since much of her life had been spent in the public domain. Initially West protested that she had so much more to do with her life, but friends pointed out she could write a sequel in the future. Some of the the early working titles West had in mind for her memoirs were "Queen of Sex," and "Come Up and See Me Sometime."
Although West's autobiography went through several printings in hardback and soft cover, critic's reaction to her account of her life was mixed. Theatre Arts stated "the heart of gold is outweighed by the purse of gold and the gloating over box-office grosses," while the New York Times reviewer found West's tome "theatre wise, basically clean, sometimes corny, often entertaining yarn."
Perhaps Mae West's self penned novel, "Babe Gordon," published in 1930 and later rechristened, "The Constant Sinner," was closer to the actual events of her life, that she dared not reveal in her later biography. The inside panel of the original cover proclaimed, "Constantly sinning and constant to her sin, Babe Gordon, the heroine of this vigorous story belongs to that rare type of woman who uses her beauty and sexual allure as a soldier uses his weapons - without mercy or scruple. She is irresistible to every type of man, from the bruisers of the prize ring to the sensitive sons of aristocracy. She is canny, worldly wise, quick thinking. All her art , her wisdom, her will is to love; and when her passion for one man cools, she kindles it in another.
In a classic example of life imitating art, Mae West was outraged when Confidential magazine featured an expose on her private life alleging her sexual proclivity for black men. Chalky Wright, "a bronze boxer" whom West had met was "invited up to see her sometime" and ended up living with her for a year. Confidential magazine claimed "West's favorite color combination, as only the men in her life know, is black and white."
As a result of Mae West's appearance in Myra Breckinridge in 1970, interest in her was at an all-time high, and MacFadden-Bartell published an updated edition of her biography in paperback.
West asked George Eiferman, a former 1948 Mr. America, and 1962 Mr. Universe title holder, to write an eight page appendix entitled "My Story," explaining the events that led to Chuck Krauser aka Paul Novak knocking out Mickey Hargitay. West sagely secured affidavits from the other bodybuilders in the act supporting her statement that she had never shown romantic interest in Haritay. When asked why it would possibly matter years after the fact, West pointed out, "That's where you're not thinkin' clear. It's when he gets desperate that he'll try to peddle a story, '"I was the One Man Mae West Wanted but Couldn't Get."
West's prophesy was realized when Gordon Mitchell, one of the muscleman in her Vegas act was quoted in the July 2001 issue of Premier : "Mickey won't tell you this but I will. Mae was crazy about him! He was the first guy who ever rejected her." Other chapters in West's updated memoirs dealt with the filming of Myra Breckinridge and outlined plans for future projects.
For the serious student of Mae West lore, "Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It" is an excellant starting off point to discover why Mae West can be considered the most fascinating woman of the Twentieth Century.

This book is wonderful! It's ideal for children of all ages that dream of being cowboys or cowgirls. My 7, 5 and 4 yo love this book. A delight to read aloud. It is packed full with humorous pages.

Matt Field, a middling actor down on his luck, sickly, rejected twice by two different women when he proposed marriage, decided in 1839 to take a trip to Santa Fe with one of the trading caravans headed to that city from Independence, Missouri. Accompanied by a few friends, he steamboated from St. Louis to Independence, where in July he joined a small (18 men) caravan and set out across the plains. Going through Council Grove on to Bent's Fort, he continued over Raton Pass after which he left the main caravan and followed a trail to Taos and then down to Santa Fe. Thoroughly enjoying his stay in Santa Fe, but fearing a winter crossing of the plains, he left the capital late in September, took the Cimarron Cutoff, and made it back to Independence by the last day in October.

Fortunately for posterity, Field kept a journal of his trip, which is included here; he was also later hired by the New Orleans Picayune to write a number of articles based on his travels and experiences (they also are included here and make up the main portion of the book). A budding poet as well as an actor, Field turned his outward-bound journal into a long epic poem (the return leg remained in typical diary form). Though his poetic skills are not very good, this poem remains a unique document in the annals of western literature. The newspaper articles are another matter; they are superbly written and fascinating to read. The articles were meant to entertain readers, and hearsay and embellishment abound, but their bases are in fact and in what Field experienced. Everything seemed to be worthy of his attention and subsequent relating, from sights along the trail to humorous anecdotes related to him by others he met along the way. There is the obligatory grizzly bear story and thunderstorm-on-the-prairie story, but also more personal items such as a funeral in Taos and a wedding in Santa Fe. The articles ran for two years in the Picayune and as they still do today must have brought much enthusiasm to their first readers. The trade along the Santa Fe Trail was in decline by 1839, and to have Field's first-hand impressions of what it was like then is remarkable. It's among the half-dozen most important original works regarding the trail and the trade and the people who were involved with both, and it's a delight to read. Highly recommended.

The Constant Sinner is a dramatic novel about a young beautiful woman, Babe Gordon, and her intriguing storm through New York's underworld and society set. From the wanton streets of Harlem, to the prizefighting arena, to the lascivious speakeasies and night resorts, Babe's intense passion for men and wealth lead her on an unscrupulous and uninhibited journey. Set in the pre-libertarian 1930's U.S., the story takes its most notorious turn when Babe begins a love affair with a Black racketeer, Money Johnson. Gripping, racy, poetic, articulate, this book is exceptionally well written. The Constant Sinner is one of those rare novels, so perfect and original in its content and style, that its presence assumes a classic or cult-like acclaim. However, it's Mae West the entertainer whose celebrity has become that of legend. So, let the truth be known...West is nothing short of genius... an outstanding writer, artist, historian, and cultural critic.

William H. Goetzmann, long of the University of Texas, has been a star in the study of the history of exploration for more than forty years. He first gained broad recognition for his Pulitzer Prize-winning "Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientists in the Winning of the American West" (Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), which traced in scintillating prose the expeditions of what he referred to as the period of settlement and investment (1845-1860) and the era of the great surveys (1860-1900). This work, "New Lands, New Men," is in some respects an expansion of that earlier book. He makes the case here that there have been two great ages of exploration. The first originated out of the ideas of the Renaissance, was largely fueled by a quest for greater wealth, and served to incorporate into the European sphere of influence widely dispersed regions of the world.

"New Lands, New Men" takes as its subject a second great age of exploration that began in the seventeenth century and lasted through the nineteenth century. It incorporates much of the understanding offered in Goetzmann's 1966 work, but broadens the theme to the world as whole rather than focusing on the American West. It takes as core components the Lewis and Clark expedition to the west of North America from 1803 to 1806, the efforts of Sir Richard Burton and Stanley and Livingston in Africa, John C. Frémont's Rocky Mountain expeditions, and travels to the sources of the Amazon River in South America and the Nile River in Africa. It also included the efforts of seafarers to map islands and the poles; and involved such international scientific endeavors as the International Polar Year of 1882-1883, which cooperatively sought to obtain scientific and ethnographic data about the Arctic. This second age of exploration effectively closed with the conclusion of the last great expeditions into the interiors of the continents in the later nineteenth century and the activities of individuals like John Wesley Powell and efforts by such organizations as the U.S. Geological Survey. It, too, led to a massive accumulation of data about these lands new to European civilization and transformed the world with the gathering of much new information.

Goetzmann makes the case that this second great age of exploration, contrasting what had gone before, emphasized the advance of science and human progress. He argues that it effectively opened with Charles Marie de La Condamine's 1735-1749 expedition to South America to test Newton's hypothesis that the Earth is an oblate spheroid. That expedition employed an astronomer, a mathematician, a botanist, a surveyor, and engineers and equipped them with the latest instruments to maximize their data collection. Through this effort, and others of a similar nature, Goetzmann believes that "science and art came together to change the thought of Europe" (p. 39).

The result, he concludes, is that western civilization made a "quantum leap" in knowledge about the natural world that humans live in (p. 269). Goetzmann offers here an enthralling account of this effort; it is an accessible and thought-provoking narrative of "the good old days of the explorer-adventurer among the winds and currents of storm-tossed seas at the very ends of the earth" (p. 362). It is a superb reading experience for even those casually interested in the subject. Enjoy.