Buster Keaton

"Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton, one of the most distinguished filmmakers in cinematic history, was a brilliant comedian whose films seem untouched by time." "Marion Meade's biography goes behind the scenes at the making of Keaton's masterpiece, The General, selected by the American Film Institute as one of the five best silent films of all time; details his experiences acting with Charlie Chaplin in the film Limelight; and reveals his role in one of Hollywood's most infamous sex scandals involving Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle." "Meade's portrait of this brilliant artist also goes beyond the legend to reveal more details about the private Keaton than any previous work: the anguish of child abuse, his lifelong struggle to conceal his lack of the most basic educational skills, the alcoholism that practically ended his career and life, the women and the marriages." "Buster Keaton is based on four years of research and more than two hundred interviews with people who knew, worked with, and loved him, including Billy Wilder, Leni Riefenstahl, Gene Kelly, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Irene Mayer Selznick, and Bill Cosby, as well as members of Keaton's family, some of whom had refused to speak to biographers and journalists until now. The book also has never-before-seen photographs, contributed by Keaton's estate. No lover of cinema should miss this startling, moving account of a great man and his troubled life."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.