Geoffrey O'Brien

Geoffrey O'Brien is Editor in Chief of the Library of America. He is the author, most recently, of Sonata for Jukebox: An Autobiography of My Ears and Red Sky Café. (July 2009)

From the Review

July 2, 2009: When Hollywood Dared

Pre-Code Hollywood Collection: The Cheat/Merrily We Go to Hell/Hot Saturday/Torch Singer/Murder at the Vanities/Search for Beauty

Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Volume Three: Other Men's Women/The Purchase Price/Frisco Jenny/Midnight Mary/Heroes for Sale/Wild Boys of the Road

October 23, 2008: Our Nights Chez Rohmer

The Romance of Astrea and Celadon a film by Eric Rohmer

April 17, 2008: A World of Saints and Gangsters

Kill All Your Darlings: Pieces 1990–2005 by Luc Sante

August 16, 2007: A Northern New Jersey of the Mind

The Sopranos a television series created by David Chase

November 2, 2006: The Jimmy Stewart Story

Jimmy Stewart: A Biography by Marc Eliot

September 21, 2006: Nightmare on the Prairie

Jenufa by Leos Janácek, directed by Jonathan Miller

March 9, 2006: He Walked with a Zombie

The Val Lewton Horror Collection 9 films by Val Lewton

Icons of Grief: Val Lewton's Home Front Pictures by Alexander Nemerov

December 15, 2005: 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow'

Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era by Ken Emerson

August 11, 2005: Cold Comfort

War of the Worlds a film directed by Steven Spielberg

December 16, 2004: The Man in the Smoking Jacket

Cary Grant: A Biography by Marc Eliot

Cary Grant: In Name Only by Gary Morecambe and Martin Sterling

August 12, 2004: Is It All Just a Dream?

Fahrenheit 9/11 a film by Michael Moore

March 25, 2004: Lear for Real

King Lear by William Shakespeare, directed by Jonathan Miller

December 18, 2003: Fallen World

Mystic River a film directed by Clint Eastwood

July 3, 2003: You Can't Go Home Again?

December 5, 2002: Unlocking the Cupboard

The Human Country: New and Collected Stories by Harry Mathews

August 15, 2002: Prospero on the Run

Minority Report a film directed by Steven Spielberg

June 13, 2002: Popcorn Park

November 15, 2001: Hitchcock: The Hidden Power

Hitchcock et l'Art: Coïncidences Fatales (Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences) catalog of the exhibition edited by Dominique Païniand Guy Cogeval

The Hitchcock Murders by Peter Conrad

September 20, 2001: On 'Sleepless Nights'

August 9, 2001: Very Special Effects

A.I. a film by Steven Spielberg

March 8, 2001: All the Luck in the World

Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams, The Early Years 1903–1940 by Gary Giddins

January 11, 2001: Seven Years in the Life

The Beatles Anthology the Beatles

1 the Beatles

July 20, 2000: The Triumph of Marxism

Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx by Stefan Kanfer

The Essential Groucho: Writings by, for, and about Groucho Marx edited by Stefan Kanfer

Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers by Simon Louvish

February 24, 2000: Stompin' at the Savoy

Topsy-Turvy a film directed by Mike Leigh

December 16, 1999: Rock of Ages

Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977 by James Miller

May 6, 1999: Burt Bacharach Comes Back

The Look of Love: The Burt Bacharach Collection compilation produced by Patrick Milligan

Great Jewish Music: Burt Bacharach executive producer, John Zorn

February 18, 1999: The Last Shakespearean?

Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom

December 17, 1998: Silent Screams

Les Vampires (1915-1916) a film directed by Louis Feuillade

Irma Vep (1996) a film directed by Olivier Assayas

The Mystery of Irma Vep a revival of the 1984 production by Charles Ludlum, directed by and starring Everett Quinton. at the Westside Theatre, New York

July 16, 1998: Child's Play

Cymbeline of Music, June 3-6, and at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., June 23-July 5, 1998 a play by William Shakespeare, directed by Adrian Noble. performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Brooklyn Academy

April 9, 1998: Recapturing the American Sound

Anthology of American Folk Music compiled by Harry Smith

Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes by Greil Marcus

When We Were Good: The Folk Revival by Robert Cantwell

Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity by Richard A. Peterson

August 14, 1997: Sein of the Times

Seinfeld: a television series by Jerry Seinfeld, by Larry David

February 6, 1997: The Ghost at the Feast

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet film directed by Baz Luhrmann

Hamlet a film directed by Kenneth Branagh

Looking for Richard a film directed by Al Pacino

Twelfth Night a film directed by Trevor Nunn

A Midsummer Night's Dream Tramway Theater, Glasgow, February 4-7; the Palais Résidence, Brussels, February 12-15; and the Cultural Center Belem, Lisbon, February 19-23 a play directed by Jonathan Miller. At the Almeida Theatre, London, through February 1, 1997; then the

December 19, 1996: Magnificent Obsession

Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock, restored by Robert A. Harris, by James C. Katz

February 29, 1996: The Great Prose Painter

Winslow Homer October 15, 1995-January , 1996 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, February 21-May 26 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 20-September 2. an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,, Catalog of the exhibition by Nikolai Cikovsky Jr., by Franklin Kelly

October 19, 1995: Whitman's Revolution

Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography by David S. Reynolds

Complete Poetry and Collected Prose by Walt Whitman

Selected Letters of Walt Whitman edited by Edwin Haviland Miller

Constructing the German Walt Whitman by Walter Gründzweig

The Neglected Walt Whitman: Vital Texts edited by Sam Abrams

The Continuing Presence of Walt Whitman edited by Robert K. Martin

November 17, 1994: A Kinder, Gentler Perversity

Ed Wood directed by Tim Burton. Touchstone Pictures

The Violent Years

Jail Bait

Plan 9 from Outer Space

Night of the Ghouls

Bride of the Monster

Glen or Glenda (I Changed My Sex)

Ed Wood: Look Back in Angora directed by Ted Newsom

November 3, 1994: Hide and Seek

Georges Perec: A Life in Words by David Bellos

December 2, 1993: The Mayakovsky of MacDougal Street

City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara by Brad Gooch

April 22, 1993: Horror for Pleasure

Bram Stoker's Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Nosferatu directed by F.W. Murnau

Dracula directed by George Melford

Vampyr directed by Carl Dreyer

Freaks directed by Tod Browning

The Black Cat directed by Edgar Ulmer

I Walked with a Zombie directed by Jacques Tourneur

Curse of the Demon directed by Jacques Tourneur

Horror of Dracula by Terence Fisher

Black Sunday directed by Mario Bava

The Haunted Palace directed by Roger Corman

The Fearless Vampire Killers directed by Roman Polanski

The Conqueror Worm directed by Michael Reeves

Daughters of Darkness directed by Harry Kümel

Ganja and Hess directed by Bill Gunn

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre directed by Tobe Hooper

Suspiria directed by Dario Argento

The Brood directed by David Cronenberg

Fear No Evil directed by Frank Laloggia

Dead Ringers directed by David Cronenberg

September 24, 1992: Blazing Passions

Red Sorghum directed by Zhang Yimou (1987)

Horse Thief directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang (1986)

The Big Parade directed by Chen Kaige (1985)

Yellow Earth directed by Chen Kaige (1984)

Raise the Red Lantern directed by Zhang Yimou (1991)

Fists of Fury directed by Lo Wei (1972)

Shanghai Blues directed by Tsui Hark (1984)

Peking Opera Blues directed by Tsui Hark (1986)

A Chinese Ghost Story directed by Ching Siu-ting (1987)

A Better Tomorrow directed by John Woo (1986)

Boat People directed by Ann Hui (1982)

Rouge directed by Stanley Kwan (1988)

Once Upon a Time in China directed by Tsui Hark (1991)

A Touch of Zen directed by King Hu (1975)

A Terra-Cotta Warrior directed by Ching Siu-ting (1990)

March 5, 1992: Killing Time

West of Everything: The Inner Life of Westerns by Jane Tompkins

Western Films: A Complete Guide by Brian Garfield

Box-Office Buckaroos: The Cowboy Hero from the Wild West Show to the Silver Screen by Robert Heide, by John Gilman

The BFI Companion to the Western edited by Edward Buscombe, forward by Richard Schickel

The Western edited by Phil Hardy

August 15, 1991: The Return of Film Noir!

The Seventh Victim directed by Mark Robson

The Dark Mirror directed by Robert Siodmak

Desperate directed by Anthony Mann

The Street With No Name directed by William Keighley

Road House directed by Jean Negulesco

Follow Me Quietly directed by Richard Fleischer

Caught directed by Max Ophuls

Gun Crazy directed by Joseph H. Lewis

Panic in the Streets directed by Elia Kazan

The Underworld Story directed by Cyril Endfield

Try and Get Me directed by Cyril Endfield

The Narrow Margin directed by Richard Fleischer

On Dangerous Ground directed by Nicholas Ray

Pickup on South Street directed by Samuel Fuller

Human Desire directed by Fritz Lang

Kiss Me Deadly directed by Robert Aldrich

May 30, 1991: The Ghost Opera

History of the American Cinema, Vol. 1: The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907 by Charles Harpole general editor, by Charles Musser

History of the American Cinema, Vol. 2: The Transformation of Cinema: 1907–1915 by Charles Harpole general editor, by Eileen Bowser

History of the American Cinema, Vol. 3: An Evening's Entertainment: The Age of the Silent Feature Picture, 1915–1928 by Charles Harpole general editor, by Richard Koszarski

Behind the Mask of Innocence: Sex, Violence, Prejudice, Crime—Films of Social Conscience in the Silent Era by Kevin Brownlow

Early Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative edited by Thomas Elsaesser, edited by Adam Barker

Life to Those Shadows by Noël Burch, translated and edited by Ben Brewster

The Missing Reel: The Untold Story of the Lost Inventor of Moving Pictures by Christopher Rawlence

Babel and Babylon: Spectatorship in American Silent Film by Miriam Hansen

December 20, 1990: The Sturges Style

Preston Sturges by Preston Sturges adapted and edited by Sandy Sturges

Between Flops: A Biography of Preston Sturges by James Curtis

Madcap: The Life of Preston Sturges by Donald Spoto

Five Screenplays by Preston Sturges edited and with an introduction by Brian Henderson

July 20, 1989: Water Music (poem)

July 21, 1988: Free Spirits

Romantic Comedy in Hollywood, from Lubitsch to Sturges by James Harvey

August 13, 1987: Grand Illusions

A Life in Movies: An Autobiography by Michael Powell

January 15, 1987: Thoreau's Book of Life

Henry David Thoreau: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers; Walden; The Maine Woods; Cape Cod

Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind by Robert D. Richardson Jr.

The Winged Life: The Poetic Voice of Henry David Thoreau edited and with commentaries by Robert Bly

From New York Review Books

Sleepless Nights An inspired fusion of fact and invention, this beautifully realized, hard-bitten, lyrical book is not only Elizabeth Hardwick's finest fiction but one of the outstanding contributions to American literature of the last fifty years.

Books by Geoffrey O'Brien

Castaways of the Image Planet: Movies, Show Business, Public Spectacle (2002)
The Browser's Ecstasy: A Meditation on Reading (2000)
Bardic Deadlines: Reviewing Poetry, 1984-95 (1998)
The Times Square Story (1998)
The Phantom Empire (1993)
Book of Maps (1989)
Dream Time (1988)
Hardboiled America: The Lurid Years of Paperbacks (1981)