Showman : the Life of David O. Selznick / David Thomson

Thomson, David (1941- )

ISBN 10: 0394568338 / ISBN 13: 9780394568331

Published by New York : Knopf, 1992

About this Item

Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dw. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 792 pages; Description: xi, 792 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 707-710) , filmography (p. 749-759) , and index. Subjects: Selznick, David O. , 1902-1965. Motion picture producers and directors --United States --Biography 1 Kg. Seller Inventory # 166603

Bibliographic Details

Title: Showman : the Life of David O. Selznick / ...

Publisher: New York : Knopf

Publication Date: 1992

Binding: Hardcover

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

Edition: First Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

David Selznick (1902-1965) was 20 when his father, a high-rolling silent film producer/distributor, went bankrupt. Bent on fame, wealth and publicity, the precocious son who had served his domineering father as a sorcerer's apprentice would actually surpass his father. In his entertaining, prodigiously researched biography, Thomson characterizes Selznick as an arrogant manipulator, a megalomaniac hooked on Benzedrine, a brash charmer who believed he was pursuing perfection as a noble aim neglected by Hollywood. A walking contradiction, the highly sexed mogul made a pass at nearly every woman he employed but shied away from the erotic on screen. The self-educated high-school dropout produced Anna Karenina, David Copperfield, Dinner at Eight, Gone with the Wind and King Kong. Thomson, a novelist and author of A Biographical Dictionary of Film, has written a scintillating bio that includes glimpses of Garbo, Hepburn, Gable, Olivier, Dietrich, Graham Greene, Alfred Hitchcock and dozens of others. The book follows Selznick's trajectory from expansive creator to suspicious negotiator preoccupied with a fear of failure.

About the Author:

David Thomson is London-born but has lived and worked in California for over twenty years. He writes and reviews films regularly for major press publications.