Charles Chaplin was born in London in 1889 to actor parents. His career in films started in 1914 with a string of single-reelers for Keystone Comedy Film Company. Success was immediate, and nine years later, to get better terms, he helped form United Artists. Chaplin's life was full of controversy, from his memorable arguments with the government about taxes to his marriage late in life to Oona O'Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene and two generations his junior. By her he sired an extensive brood. She in turn cared for him devotedly through the remainder of his long life (he died on Christmas Day, 1977). "From a destitute childhood in Victorian London to fame without frontiers...one of the success extravaganzas of the century." (Publisher's Source)

My Autobiography

Biographies & Memoirs

CHAPLIN, CHARLIE

Arts & Literature

Penguin Books, Ltd.

My Early Years

Education & Teaching

Schools & Teaching

Heinemann Educational Books - Secondary Division

Film star Charlie Chaplin spent February 1931 through June 1932 touring Europe, during which time he wrote a travel memoir entitled “A Comedian Sees the World.” This memoir was published as a set of five articles in Women’s Home Companion from September 1933 to January 1934 but until now had never been published as a book in the U.S. In presenting the first edition of Chaplin’s full memoir, Lisa Stein Haven provides her own introduction and notes to supplement Chaplin’s writing and enhance the narrative.Haven’s research revealed that “A Comedian Sees the World” may very well have been Chaplin’s first published composition, and that it was definitely the beginning of his writing career. It also marked a transition into becoming more vocally political for Chaplin, as his subsequent writings and films started to take on more noticeably political stances following his European tour.During his tour, Chaplin spent time with numerous politicians, celebrities, and world leaders, ranging from Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi to Albert Einstein and many others, all of whom inspired his next feature films, Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), Monsieur Verdoux (1947), and A King in New York (1957). His excellent depiction of his experiences, coupled with Haven’s added insights, makes for a brilliant account of Chaplin’s travels and shows another side to the man whom most know only from his roles on the silver screen. Historians, travelers, and those with any bit of curiosity about one of America’s most beloved celebrities will all want to have A Comedian Sees the World in their collections. Available only in the USA and Canada.

A Comedian Sees the World

Humor & Entertainment

Movies

University of Missouri

Charlie Chaplin's own Story: Being a Faithful Recital of a Romantic Career, Beginning With Early Recollections of Boyhood in London and Closing With the Signing of his Latest Motion-picture Contract

Lane, Rose Wilder

History

Legare Street Press

My Wonderful Visit

Reference

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Charlie Chaplin's own story: being a faithful recital of a romantic career, beginning with early recollections of boyhood in London and closing with ... contract - Scholar's Choice Edition

Scholar's Choice

Andesite Press

LIFE itself is a comedy -- a slap-stick comedy at that. It is always hitting you over the head with the unexpected. You reach to get the thing you want -- slap! bang! It's gone! You strike at your enemy and hit a friend. You walk confidently, and fall. Whether it is tragedy or comedy depends on how you look at it. There is not a hair's breadth between them.When I was eleven years old, homeless and starving in London, I had big dreams. I was a precocious youngster, full of imagination and fancies and pride. My dream was to become a great musician, or an actor like Booth. Here I am to-day, becoming a millionaire because I wear funny shoes. Slap-stick comedy, what?

Charlie Chaplin's Own Story

lulu.com

“I remain just one thing, and one thing only — and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.” – Charlie Chaplin Only a select few actors become international stars in their time, but none had as unique a career as Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin was the first true film star, and he managed to do so even when films were still silent. He has been honored with too many awards to count, and the fact that his name remains instantly recognizable nearly a century after his first film is a testament to his influence. Even today, Chaplin’s films are arguably more recognizable than those of perhaps any other actor or director; everyone is familiar with the famous “Tramp” costume and persona, and even the casual film enthusiast has likely seen films such as City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936). Chaplin is known for the singular blend of pathos and humor evinced by his films, and it is not uncommon for audiences to laugh and cry at alternate points of a Chaplin film, a trait that continues to endear audiences even to this day. For this reason, in his review of Stephen Weissman’s biography of Chaplin, Martin Sieff noted, “It is doubtful any individual has every given more entertainment, pleasure, and relief to so many human beings when they needed it most.” As Sieff’s comment suggests, Chaplin’s career coincided with the two World Wars and the Great Depression, but while Chaplin the actor was popular, Chaplin the person became controversial in the final decades of his life. In fact, there is a wide discrepancy between the almost uniformly enthusiastic praise of Chaplin today and the subversive identity he cultivated toward the latter part of his career. Although accusations of being a communist sympathizer and Chaplin’s confrontation with the House Committee on Un-American Activities have mostly become a footnote in the storied career of a man best remembered as an acting pioneer, it forced Chaplin to spend the last 15 years of his career working as an artist in exile, and the shifting viewpoints of Chaplin were instrumental in forcing people to evaluate the way in which they viewed celebrities, as well as what it means to be entertained. Indeed, it is impossible to substantiate the belief that Chaplin’s later films are poorer in quality than his earlier ones, yet the public largely rejected his later directorial efforts. In the end, it must be acknowledged that, more than any other figure who had come before him, the public was aware of Chaplin’s personal life in ways that were often upsetting and inconsistent with the persona effected through his films. Due to the way Chaplin was vilified, relatively little is known about the final chapter of Chaplin’s life, and one of the prevailing tensions concerning Chaplin is the way in which he is incredibly famous on the one hand but also a particularly mysterious and even unknown figure on the other hand. After Chaplin’s body was stolen from his grave, Kenneth Schuyler Lynn pointed out that “the image of his empty gravesite came to symbolize his historic elusiveness, as a person no less than as a performer.”

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

“The best autobiography ever written by an actor. An astonishing work.” —Chicago Tribune Chaplin’s heartfelt and hilarious autobiography tells the story of his childhood, the challenge of identifying and perfecting his talent, his subsequent film career and worldwide celebrity. In this, one of the very first celebrity memoirs, Chaplin displays all the charms, peculiarities and deeply-held beliefs that made him such an endearing and lasting character. Re-issued as part of Melville House’s Neversink Library, My Autobiography offers dedicated Chaplin fans and casual admirers alike an astonishing glimpse into the the heart and the mind of Hollywood’s original genius maverick. Take this unforgettable journey with the man George Bernard Shaw called “the only genius to come out of the movie industry” as he moves from his impoverished South London childhood to the heights of Hollywood wealth and fame; from the McCarthy-era investigations to his founding of United Artists to his “reverse migration” back to Europe, My Autobiography is a reading experience not to be missed.

My Autobiography (Neversink)

Literature & Fiction

Dramas & Plays

Melville House

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