Chaplin Books

A really good book about Chaplin.
A must have for any real Chaplin fan.

This is a book about the descendents of Abram (born October 16, 1757) and Rosanna McConnell (born March 18, 1764). It includes children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great great grandchildren, and great great great grandchildren, all those known down to 1981 when it was published. It has over 1000 photographs and biographies of McConnell relationships. The author spent over 40 years in research.

It has been only about forty years since observers first discovered and then began studying the natural, resonant oscillations of our local star, The SUN. More recent observations have also discovered oscillations in the solar atmosphere. This book restricts itself to those internal to the surface of the sun. The book is aimed at the non-specialist general science reader. There is essentially no mathematical analysis.

The book begins with a recounting of the hisory of the finding and acceptance of solar oscillations, otherwise known as helioseismology. This is followed by a discussion of the physics at work in a star such as the sun. Finally the book goes into the discovery of the oscillations and subsequently the discoveries made possible by analyzing the oscillations.

Published in 2006, this book reflects the current thinking in the field as of the end of 2005.

Such a personal biography, with little snipets of Charles Chaplin's Snr life and personality that tell you much about the man. I liked the Charles Chaplin Snr that I was reading about. This would have to one of the best biographies that I have ever read.

This is a great book that really helps to know how the great Chaplin was in private life.A Chaplin fan must read this book.I really enjoyed reading it and i'm a real die-hard fan.

Lita Grey Chaplin, the second wife of Charlie and the one to be completely ignored in Chaplin's autobiography, reveals her life with Chaplin in thorough detail. She is an excellent storyteller, or at least the ghostwriter is, whichever created the fluidity of the stories. For this, the book is very easy to read. It thankfully does not end with the divorce; Lita tells of her vaudeville singing career and her battles with alcoholism.

Although most of the book is about Chaplin and life with the temperamental man, Grey is respectful of him. She does paint him out to be less than lovable by illustrating their life together, but she is not malicious or out to blemish his career. This is a highly revealing book and does not skimp on the details of the pair's sex life, much of which is disturbing to read about. Still, Grey is fair in her writings and often comments that despite everything, she loved Chaplin.

Because Chaplin left out information about Lita in his own book out of respect for the two children they had together, this book is essential reading for Chaplin fans.

I must admit that I began to read this book with some degree of trepidation. The book's author is the wife that Charlie Chaplin never spoke of, and is widely viewed as the most distratious of his four marriages. Based on much of the evidence that is available, one would not expect Lita Grey Chaplin to give a fair view of her ex-husband. Yet in "My Life with Chaplin", she does not an exceptional job of plodding her personal disasters that began with her courtship with Charlie Chaplin.

It has been said that there are three sides to a story, yours, mine and the truth. If we consider this principle, Lita and Charlie are certain to have skewed certain incidents of their life together in favor of themselves. In reality, we will never have the whole truth about their marriage. But since Charlie never really talked about this marriage, we are left only with Lita's view. From her adolescent encounters that left her pregnant through her marriage that was destined to end in divorce, Lita's portrayal of Charlie is often vilanous. Whether it is entirely factual, this is how she saw him at that time.

With the hardship that clouded their relationship, it would seem a stretch for Lita to say anything nice about Charlie. Yet the last chapter gives their story a sense of reconciliation. At their time, they were two very scared people in a relationship that was doomed to fail. A much elder Chaplin does not let his anger from the past prevent him from helping the him to help the mother of his two sons conquer chemical dependancy. Their sorrow over misdeeds of the past gives the book a good sense of closure.

Lita Grey Chaplin, the second wife of Charlie and the one to be completely ignored in Chaplin's autobiography, reveals her life with Chaplin in thorough detail. She is an excellent storyteller, or at least the ghostwriter is, whichever created the fluidity of the stories. For this, the book is very easy to read. It thankfully does not end with the divorce; Lita tells of her vaudeville singing career and her battles with alcoholism.

Although most of the book is about Chaplin and life with the temperamental man, Grey is respectful of him. She does paint him out to be less than lovable by illustrating their life together, but she is not malicious or out to blemish his career. This is a highly revealing book and does not skimp on the details of the pair's sex life, much of which is disturbing to read about. Still, Grey is fair in her writings and often comments that despite everything, she loved Chaplin.

Because Chaplin left out information about Lita in his own book out of respect for the two children they had together, this book is essential reading for Chaplin fans.

Sweden's Ove Fundin was one of the greatest motorsport champions of all time, winning the speedway motorcycle racing world title five times during the 1950s and 1960s. Still an active motorcyclist, bicyclist, runner, hiker, aircraft pilot, skydiver, and golfer in his early seventies, he is quite an interesting character. John Chaplin, an experienced speedway journalist for many years, has produced a well-written biography based on documentary research and extensive interviews with many of the subject's colleagues, competitors, and family members, as well as with Fundin himself. Although an authorized biography, the book is not a whitewash, and presents all points of view of Fundin's character, both during his racing career and after his retirement. For speedway fans, the book is well worth reading, presenting not only the life story of the five-times World Champion, but many first-hand insights from interviewees about what it is like to ride among top-level opponents in a speedway race, as well as interesting technical information about speedway equipment of the period. The book itself is a quality large-format paperback illustrated with many photographs.

The authors' note right at the start of this encyclopedic work for art historians, conservators, and forensic specialists cites historic complaints that the names artists have recorded for the pigments they used in their paintings, frescoes, etc., are notoriously unreliable. Hence, the hundreds of cross-references to help researchers get to the pigment an artist used in a work despite what he or she may have called it. The reference also works from the standpoint of wishing to confirm a particular pigment by describing in detail its physical and chemical properties. This incomparable art reference for determining important matters of works of art goes beyond such scientific information to include as well historical notes on many of the pigments. The entry "Burnt Ochre" is an example of most of the thousands of entries: It begins with the general comment that the "phenomena that yellow ochre when heated converts to red ochre" has been known since pre-historic times. This is followed by a note that the fourth-century B. C. philosopher Theophrastus wrote a detailed description of the process of "producing burnt ochres." Then comes the physical and chemical information--"The process in action is the thermal transformation of goethite...to iron(III) oxide, whereby the goethite begins to dehydrate...," and so on for about 20 more lines. (The chemical equations in the quote are omitted in this review.) After this comes a few short paragraphs on comments later writers have made on burnt ochre, with the entry ending with remarks on the term for this pigment and related terms. The "Pigment Compendium" is an exhaustive, reliable guide to resolving important matters about works of art using pigments--matters which may involve accurate dating, and in some cases also involve large sums of money for museums or private collectors. Every museum, art library, and serious art collector should have a copy.