SEPT 2018: By Myself and Then Some by Lauren Bacall

[Samantha]

Our fall read is By Myself and Then Some, the revised autobiography of Lauren Bacall. An accomplished model, actress and wife to Humphrey Bogart, her long life promises to be an interesting reading topic.

Have you read this book before? What do you hope to learn from it?
Which of Bacall’s films are your favorite?

[Samantha]

I started this one today on audiobook. It says abridged on the back, which would usually send me running to get the full book instead, only Bacall herself reads it. I love autobiographies because they’re so personal, and hearing it in the author’s own voice makes it more so. I feel a bit dirty about it though.

[Samantha]

Happy birthday to our current reading subject!

[[deleted user]]

I'm about 2/3 through it. It's very good and surprisingly moving.

[[deleted user]]

I had not read this before. I learned a lot about her personal life and later her stage career, but I would have liked a little more about her films prior to Bogart's death. This is the review I posted a bit ago:

It was readable throughout, but the first half was much better than the second. After the death of Humphrey Bogart, the story is more misery than anything else from bad romance (Sinatra) to an abusive marriage (Jason Robards Jr.)--the best part of the second half was Bacall's return to her stage roots. The AND THEN SOME was published in 2005 and was mostly a chronicle of deaths of her friends.

[Samantha]

I was surprised by how short the first section was. I’m glad she added to the story later in life.

Reading about her close friendship with Roddy McDowall makes me wonder— was he friends with everyone? I’ve never read an unkind word about him. Honestly if he were still around, I’d want to meet him and be his friend. He truly loved movies and talking about them and collecting them.

[Samantha]

Lauren Bacall on TCM:
Nov. 28 12:45 p.m. The Cobweb
Dec. 9 1:45 p.m. Young Man With a Horn