In the golden age of Hollywood, when motion pictures were reshaping the world's imagination, one fearless cultural critic dared to ask the questions no one else was asking. Gilbert Seldes, one of the most incisive minds of the twentieth century, turned his razor-sharp attention to the most powerful entertainment machine ever constructed and delivered a verdict that still reverberates today. The Movies Come from America is not simply a book about film. It is a reckoning with power, influenc...

For fifteen years there has existed in the United States, and in the United States alone, a form of entertainment which, seemingly without sources in the past, restored to us a kind of laughter almost unheard in modern times. It came into being by accident; it had no pretensions to art. For ten years or more it added an element of cheerful madness to the lives of millions and was despised and rejected by people of culture and intelligence. Suddenly—suddenly as it appeared to them—a great g...

The Seven Lively Arts is Gilbert Seldes's spirited 1924 defense of modern popular culture, treating cinema, jazz, vaudeville, musical comedy, comic strips, revue, and radio's emerging milieu as serious aesthetic forms. Written with wit, critical precision, and polemical energy, the book challenges the hierarchy separating "high" art from mass entertainment. Its famous praise of George Herriman's Krazy Kat, Chaplin, and popular performance situates American vernacular culture within the bro...

In "The Seven Lively Arts," Gilbert Seldes crafts a compelling narrative that explores the significance of popular culture and entertainment in early 20th-century America. Written with a mix of critical analysis and accessible prose, Seldes examines the interplay between fine art and mass media, delving into performance, film, music, and more. His acute observations are interspersed with personal anecdotes and cultural critique, situating his work within the broader context of the American...

"Proclaim Liberty!" by Gilbert Seldes is a compelling exploration of the concept of freedom and its implications in society. Seldes delves into the historical context of liberty, examining how it has been interpreted and valued across different cultures and eras. Through a blend of philosophical inquiry and cultural critique, he invites readers to reflect on the meaning of liberty in their own lives. The book serves as both a celebration of freedom and a cautionary tale about the responsib...

Gilbert Seldes, the author of The Stammering Century, writes:This book is not a record of the major events in American history duringthe nineteenth century. It is concerned with minor movements, with thecults and manias of that period. Its personages are fanatics, and radicals,and mountebanks. Its intention is to connect these secondary movementsand figures with the primary forces of the century, and to supply a back-ground in American hi...

In "The Seven Lively Arts," Gilbert Seldes offers a critical examination of the dynamic intersections between various art forms and American culture in the early 20th century. Seldes adeptly analyzes seven distinct artistic expressions'—including theater, music, dance, and visual arts'—while employing a vivid and engaging literary style that appeals to both the intellectual and the lay reader. His insightful critiques not only celebrate the vibrancy of these art forms but also reflect the ...

First published in 1956 and then again in 1994. Seldes can be viewed as a pioneer of popularising and giving value to popular culture in his various publications since 1924. The Public Arts first published in 1956 starts with a letter to Jimmy Durante and Edward R. Murrow in which Seldes suggests that news and entertainment are 'part of one field' and that 'the lively arts and the mass media are two aspects of the same phenomenon' which can be captured in the term 'the public arts'. Popula...

Charlie Chaplin - beloved by his generation, nearly forgotten today - was a cinematic visionary in endless conflict with his times. It turns out, legendary film critic Richard Schickel argues, that his life was far more fascinating than any of the Little Tramp's adventures. Here's his story.

Born into a theatrical family, Chaplin's father died of drink while his mother, unable to bear the poverty, suffered from bouts of insanity, Chaplin embarked on a film-making career which won him immeasurable success, as well as intense controversy. His extraordinary autobiography was first published in 1964 and was written almost entirely without reference to documentation - simply as an astonishing feat of memory by a 75 year old man. It is an incomparably vivid reconstruction of a poor ...

The moving story of how F. Scott Fitzgerald—washed up, alcoholic and ill—dedicated himself to devising a heartfelt course in literature for the woman he loved.In 1937, on the night of her engagement to the Marquess of Donegall, Sheilah Graham met F. Scott Fitzgerald at a party in Hollywood. Graham, a British-born journalist, broke off her engagement, and until Fitzgerald had a fatal heart attack in her apartment in 1940, the two writers lived the fervid, sometimes ...

The first-ever collection of 50+ writings from the 20th-century critic who “redefined the possibilities of the literary essay”—including works not seen in print for decades (The New Yorker)Elizabeth Hardwick wrote during the golden age of the American literary essay. For Hardwick, the essay was an imaginative endeavor, a serious form, criticism worthy of the literature in question.In the essays collected here, she covers civil rights demonstrations...