About the Book:

HARD TO FIND BOOK, only a very limited number of copies are still available.

The definitive biography of the silent film great

The silent screen's "Great Stone Face," and arguably its most prodigious comedian, Buster Keaton is famous for films such as The General and The Navigator. In this chronicle of Keaton’s life biographer Tom Dardis has unprecedented access to the comedians early films and production company files. Buster Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie Down traces both the development and decline of this great performer with compassion and accuracy, from his childhood in vaudeville to his glory days as a silent screen star and MGM contract actor, his descent into alcoholism, and his twilight years as a nearly forgotten relic of the era.

What people say:

"Tom Dardis has produced the definitive life. I don't think it will ever be superseded. ...It is scholarly yet readable, the fullest, most objective and factually detailed book on virtually every aspect of Buster's career and personality: artistic, financial, and psychological." — New York Review of Books

"Dardis's writing is delightful. The pictures add life to the words. This readably packaged and printed book is a must for all silent film fans. The results are funny and lovely and painfully sad, much like a Keaton movie." — Richmond News Leader

"Tom Dardis's biography provides the fullest study yet of Buster Keaton's life and work." — Sight and Sound

"A candid yet compassionate account of Keaton's turbulent personal life ... reveals the roots of his humanity ... his pessimism ... his superb spirit of comic gloom...." — Boston Globe

About the Author:

Tom Dardis (1923-2001) was a biographer and editor who documented the lives of literary and film greats, as well as professor emeritus of English at John Jay College of the City University of New York.