Recommended reading - Silent Movies (2007):

Silent Movies

The Birth of Film and the Triumph of Movie Culture

by Peter Kobel.

Preface by Martin Scorsese.

Foreword by Kevin Brownlow.

Published by Little, Brown and Company.

Published 2007.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0316117919

ISBN-13: 978-0316117913

Description:

Drawing on the extraordinary collection of The Library of Congress, one of the greatest repositories for silent film and memorabilia, Peter Kobel has created the definitive visual history of silent film. From its birth in the 1890s, with the earliest narrative shorts, through the brilliant full-length features of the 1920s, Silent Movies captures the greatest directors and actors and their immortal films.

Silent Movies also looks at the technology of early film, the use of color photography, and the restoration work being spearheaded by some of Hollywood's most important directors, such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.

Richly illustrated from the Library of Congress's extensive collection of posters, paper prints, film stills, and memorabilia – most of which have never been in print – Silent Movies is an important work of history that will also be a sought-after gift book for all lovers of film.

"If you ever wondered why film buffs get weak in the knees about the movies made before talkies, this book can help you understand. . . . it is beautifully designed with a dazzling array of movie stills, posters and promo material drawn from the Library of Congress' memorabilia collection." – San Francisco Chronicle.

"The definitive visual history of silent film." – New York Daily News.

"A handsomely designed and illustrated pictorial history of the voiceless cinema." – Los Angeles Times.

"A ravishing, oversize, million-pound study of the silent movie era, not just its films, but its promotion, its culture and the way these movies changed how we think about the world." – Washington Post Express.

"Kobel has lovingly detailed this world-from the zany publicity campaigns to the lavish scripts to the decadent star lifestyles. SILENT MOVIES is an essential addition to any film or design lover's library." – Encore magazine.

"Spectacular." – The New York Times.

"This isn't a coffee table book, though any coffee table would be lucky to be graced by it. The excellent text manages the trick of being exhaustive without being exhausting, while the photos – and stills, and posters, and lobby cards – are enchanting." – Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal Online.