This bibliography lists only some of the major works among the several hundred books that have been devoted to Chaplin’s life and career, along with a few early rarities and curiosities. For further study, the reader is directed to the comprehensive bibliographies compiled by Lennart Eriksson and Timothy J. Lyons.
Adeler, Edwin and West, Con, 1939, Remember Fred Karno, John Long, London.
Amengual, Barthélemy (and others), 1952, Charles Chaplin, Premier Plan, 28, Société d’Etudes de Recherches et Documentation Cinématographiques, Lyon.
American Film Institute, 1988, American Film Institute Catalog: Feature Films 1911–1920.
American Film Institute, 1971, American Film Institute Catalog: Feature Films 1921–1930.
American Film Institute, 1983, American Film Institute Catalog: Feature Films 1931–1940.
Asplund, Uno, 1973, Chaplin’s Films, translated from Swedish, Chaplin i Sverige, by Paul Britten Austin, David & Charles, Newton Abbot.
Atasheva, Pera M. (ed.), 1945, Charles Spencer Chaplin, Volume II in a series on film history, edited by Sergei M. Eisenstein and Sergei I. Yutkevitch. Essays by M. Bleiman, Grigori Kozintsev, S. I. Yutkevitch and S. M. Eisenstein, Goskinoizdat, Moscow.
Bazin, André, 1973, Charlie Chaplin, Preface by François Truffaut, Collection 7me Art, Editions du Cerf, Paris.
Bergen, Candice, 1984, Knock Wood, Hamish Hamilton, London.
Bessy, Maurice, and Florey, Robert, 1952. Monsieur Chaplin, ou le rire dans la nuit, Jacques Damase, Paris.
Bessy, Maurice, and Livio, Robin, 1972, Charles Chaplin, Denoel, Paris.
Bloom, Claire, 1982, Limelight and After: The Education of an Actress, Harper & Row, New York.
Bloom, Claire, 1996, Leaving a Doll’s House, Virago Press, London.
Bowman, William Dodgson, 1931, Charlie Chaplin. His Life and Art, Routledge, London; reprint, 1974: Haskell, New York.
Brownlow, Kevin, 1968, The Parade’s Gone By, Alfred A. Knopf, New York; Secker & Warburg, London.
Chaplin, Charles, 1933, A Comedian Sees the World, Crowell, New York.
Chaplin, Charles, 1964, My Autobiography, The Bodley Head, London; Simon and Schuster, New York. Translations in Arabic, Armenian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Georgian, German (publication in Austria, West Germany and East Germany), Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Russian, Serbo-Croat, Spanish, Swedish.
Chaplin, Charles, 1979, My Early Years, The Bodley Head, London. The first eleven chapters of My Autobiography.
Chaplin, Charles, 1976, My Life in Pictures, Introduction by Francis Wyndham, The Bodley Head, London; Grosset & Dunlap, New York.
Chaplin, Charles, 1922, My Trip Abroad, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1922. Translations in Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, French, German, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish.
Chaplin, Charles, 1922, My Wonderful Visit, Hurst & Blackett, London. English edition of My Trip Abroad.
Chaplin, Charles, Jr. (with N. and M. Rau), 1960, My Father, Charlie Chaplin, Random House, New York; Longmans, London.
Chaplin, Lita Grey (with Morton Cooper), 1966, My Life With Chaplin, An Intimate Memoir, Grove Press, New York.
Chaplin, Lita Grey (with Jeffrey Vance), 1998, Wife of the Life of the Party, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ, and London.
Chaplin, Michael, 1966, I Couldn’t Smoke the Grass on My Father’s Lawn. Leslie Frewin, London; P. Putnam’s Sons, New York.
Chaplin, Patrice, 1995, Hidden Star: Oona O’Neill Chaplin. Richard Cohen Books, London.
Chaplin Courier, 1999–, Journal of the Chaplin Society, London.
The Charlie Chaplin Book, 1915, Street & Smith, New York.
The Charlie Chaplin Book, 1916, Sabriel Sons & Co., New York.
Codd, Elsie, 1920, ‘Charlie Chaplin’s Methods’ in Cinema: Practical Course in Cinema Acting in Ten Complete Lessons, Volume II, Lesson 2, Standard Art Book Company, London.
Cooke, Alistair, 1977, ‘Charles Chaplin’ in Six Men, Alfred A. Knopf, New York; The Bodley Head, London.
Cotes, Peter and Niklaus, Thelma, 1951, The Little Fellow. The Life and Work of Charles Spencer Chaplin, Foreword by W. Somerset Maugham, Paul Elek, London; Philosophical Library Inc., New York; reprint, 1965, Citadel Press, New York.
Davies, Marion, 1976 (ed. Pamela Pfau and Kenneth S. Marx), The Times We Had, Angus and Robertson, London.
Dell, Draycott M., 1915, The Charlie Chaplin Scream Book, Fleetway, London.
Delluc, Louis, 1921, Charlot, Maurice de Brunoff, Paris. English translation by Hamish Miles, 1922, Charlie Chaplin, John Lane, The Bodley Head, London.
Epstein, Jerry, 1988, Remembering Charlie, Bloomsbury, London.
Eriksson, Lennart, 1980, Books on/by Chaplin, Lennart Eriksson, Vasteras, Sweden, 1980.
Florey, Robert, 1927, Charlie Chaplin. Ses débuts, ses films, ses aventures, Preface by Lucien Wahl, Collection ‘Les Grands Artistes de l’Ecran’, Jean-Pascal, Paris.
Fowler, Gene, 1934, Father Goose. The Story of Mack Sennett, Covici Friede, New York; reprint, 1974, Avon Books, New York.
Gallagher, J. P., 1971, Fred Karno, Master of Mirth and Tears, Robert Hale, London.
Geduld, Harry M., 1987, Chapliniana Vol. I: The Keystone Films, University of Indiana Press, Bloomington and Indiana.
Gehring, Wes D., 1983, Charlie Chaplin: A Bio-Bibliography, Greenwood Press.
Gifford, Denis, 1974, The Movie Makers, Macmillan, London; Doubleday, New York.
Gold, Michael, 1930, Charlie Chaplin’s Parade, Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York.
Guiles, Fred Lawrence, 1973, Marion Davies, W. H. Allen, London and New York.
Haining, Peter, 1983, The Legend of Charlie Chaplin, W. H. Allen, London. Anthology of writings by or about Chaplin.
Hale, Georgia (ed. Heather Kiernan), 1995, Charlie Chaplin; Intimate Close-Ups, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ, and London.
Hembus, Joe, 1972/1973, Charlie Chaplin und seine Filme. Eine Dokumentation, Wilhelm Heyne, Munich.
Hoyt, Edwin P., 1977, Sir Charlie, Robert Hale, London.
Huff, Theodore, 1944, An Index to the Films of Charles Chaplin. ‘Sight and Sound’ Index No. 3, British Film Institute, London; revised 1961 as The Early Works of Charles Chaplin, British Film Institute, London.
Huff, Theodore, 1951, Charlie Chaplin, Henry Schuman, New York; 1952, Cassell, London; reprints: 1964, Pyramid Books, New York; 1972, Arno Press, New York.
Jacobs, David, 1975, Chaplin, The Movies and Charlie, Harper & Row, New York.
Jacobs, Lewis, 1939, The Rise of the American Film, Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York.
James, Eric, 2000, Making Music With Charlie Chaplin, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ, and London.
Kamin, Dan, 1984, Charlie Chaplin’s One-Man Show, Introduction by Marcel Marceau, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ, and London.
Kerr, Walter, 1975, The Silent Clowns, Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
Kimber, John, 2000, The Art of Charlie Chaplin, Sheffield Academic Press. The book was in fact completed shortly before the death of its author in 1985.
Lahue, Kalton C., 1966, World of Laughter: The Motion Picture Comedy Short, 1910–1930, Norman, Oklahoma.
Lahue, Kalton C., 1967, Kops and Custard, Norman, Oklahoma.
Lahue, Kalton C. and Sam Gill, 1970, Clown Princes and Court Jesters, A. S. Barnes & Co., New York.
Lane, Rose Wilder, 1916, Charlie Chaplin’s Own Story, reprinted 1985, edited and with an Introduction by Harry M. Geduld, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana.
Leprohon, Pierre, 1935, Charlot, ou la naissance d’un mythe, Editions Corymbe, Paris.
Leprohon, Pierre, 1946, Charles Chaplin, Jacques Melot, Paris.
Limelight, 1994–, Journal of The Charlie Chaplin Film Company, Topanga, California.
Lourié, Eugène, 1985, My Work in Films, Harcourt Brace, New York.
Luft, Friedrich, 1957, 1963, Vom grossen schönen Schweigen. Arbeit und Leben des Charles Spencer Chaplin, Rembrandt Verlag, Berlin.
Lynn, Kenneth S., 1997, Charlie Chaplin and his Times, Simon and Schuster, New York.
Lyons, Timothy J. (and others), 1979, ‘Chaplin and Sound’, in Journal of the University Film Association, Vol. XXXI, No. 1, Winter 1979. University Film Association, Houston.
Lyons, Timothy J., 1979, Charles Chaplin: a Guide to References and Resources, G.K. Hall, Boston.
McCabe, John, 1975, The Comedy World of Stan Laurel, Robson Books Limited, London.
McCabe, John, 1978, Charles Chaplin, Doubleday, New York; Robson Books Limited, London.
McCaffrey, Donald W., 1971, Focus on Chaplin, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey. An anthology of writings by and about Chaplin.
McCaffrey, Donald W., 1968, 4 Great Comedians: Chaplin, Lloyd, Keaton, Langdon, Tantivy Press, London/A. S. Barnes & Co., New York.
McDonald, Gerald D., Conway, Michael and Ricci, Mark, 1965, The Films of Charlie Chaplin, Citadel Press, New York.
McDonald, Gerald D., 1965, The Picture History of Charlie Chaplin, Nostalgia Press, New York.
Maland, Charles J., 1989, Chaplin and American Culture, Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ.
Maltin, Leonard, 1982, The Great Movie Comedians, revised edition, 1992, with Richard W. Bann, Harmony Books, New York.
Manning, Harold, 1983, ‘Charlie Chaplin’s Early Life: Fact and Fiction’, in Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol. III – Number 1, March 1983, Carfax, Oxford. Valuable contribution to the record of Chaplin’s early years.
Manvell, Roger, 1974, Chaplin, Introduction by J. H. Plumb, Little, Brown, Boston; 1975, Hutchinson, London.
Martin, Marcel, 1966, Charles Chaplin, Collection ‘Cinéma d’Aujourd’hui’, No. 43, Editions Seghers, Paris; new edition, 1972.
Minney, R. J., 1954, Chaplin: The Immortal Tramp. The Life and Work of Charles Chaplin, George Newnes, London.
Mitchell, Glenn, 1997, The Chaplin Encyclopaedia, Batsford, London. Valuable reference source.
Mitry, Jean, 1957, Charlot et la ‘tabulation’ chaplinesque, Editions Universitaires, Paris.
Mitry, Jean 1972, Tout Chaplin, Editions Seghers, Paris.
Montgomery, John, 1954, Comedy Films 1894–1954, Preface by Norman Wisdom, George Allen & Unwin, London.
Moss, Robert, 1975, ‘Charlie Chaplin’ in Pyramid History of the Movies, Pyramid Publications, New York.
Oleksy, Walter, 1976, Laugh, Clown, Cry – The Story of Charlie Chaplin, Raintree Editions, Milwaukee.
Parrish, Robert, 1976, Growing Up in Hollywood, The Bodley Head, London.
Paumier, Pamela and Robinson, David, 1989, Charles Chaplin 100 Years, 100 Images, 100 Documents, Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone, Italy.
Payne, Robert, 1952, The Great Charlie, Foreword by G. W. Stonier, André Deutsch, London; Hermitage House, New York.
Quigley, Isabel, 1968, Charlie Chaplin, Early Comedies, Studio Vista/Dutton Paperback, London.
Ramsaye, Terry, 1926, A Million and One Nights. A History of the Motion Picture, Simon and Schuster, New York; reprint, 1964, Frank Cass, London.
Reed, Langford, 1917, The Chronicles of Charlie Chaplin, Cassell, London.
Reeves, May, 1935, Charlie Chaplin intime, Souvenirs receuillis par Claire Goll, NRF, Gallimard, Paris.
Robinson, Carlyle T., 1935, La vérité sur Charles Chaplin. Sa vie, ses amours, ses déboires, translated by René Lelu, Editions de Mon Ciné, Paris, 1935.
Robinson, David, 1983, Chaplin: The Mirror of Opinion, Secker and Warburg, London.
Robinson, David, 1969, The Great Funnies. A History of Film Comedy, Studio Vista/Dutton Paperback, London.
Robinson, David, 1989, Charlie Chaplin: 100 Years, Museum of the Moving Image, London.
Robinson, David, 1996, Charlie Chaplin: The Art of Comedy, Gallimard, Paris; Thames and Hudson, London.
Ross, Lillian, 1978, Moments With Chaplin, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York.
Sadoul, Georges, 1952, 1953, 1957, Vie de Charlot. Charles Spencer Chaplin, ses films et son temps, Les Editeurs Français Réunis, Paris; definitive edition, 1978, Spes, Lausanne/L’Herminier, Paris.
Sands, Frederick, 1977, Charlie and Oona – The Story of a Marriage, translated by Marianne Pasetti from German, Herr und Frau Chaplin. Die Geschichte einer Ehe, Kindler Verlag, Munich.
Savio, Francesco (ed.), 1972, Il Tutto Chaplin, Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica di Venezia, Venice.
Schroeder, Alan, 1997, Charlie Chaplin, The Beauty of Silence, Franklin Watts, New York.
Scovell, Jane, 1998, Oona, Living in the Shadows, Warner Books, New York.
Seldes, Gilbert; introduction by Charles Chaplin, 1937, Movies for the Millions, Batsford, London.
Sen, Mrinal, 1974, 1980, Charlie Chaplin, Grantha Prakash, Calcutta.
Sennett, Mack (as told to Cameron Shipp), 1954, King of Comedy, Doubleday, New York.
Silver, Charles, 1985, Charles Chaplin: an Appreciation, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Sobel, Raoul and Francis, David, 1977, Chaplin, Genesis of a Clown, Quartet Books, London; 1978, Horizon Press, New York.
Sullivan, Ed, 1965, Chaplin vs. Chaplin, Foreword by Walter E. Hurst and Frank Bacon, Marvin Miller Enterprises, Los Angeles.
Trauberg, Leonid, 1984, Mir Naisnanku (The World Inside Out), Isskustvo, Moscow.
Turconi, Davide, 1961, Mack Sennett, il ‘re de comiche’, Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica di Venezia, Edizioni dell’Ateneo, Rome.
Tyler, Parker, 1947, Chaplin, Last of the Clowns, Vanguard Press, New York, 1947; reprint, 1972, Horizon Press, New York.
von Ulm, Gerith, 1940, Charlie Chaplin, King of Tragedy. An unauthorized biography, Caxton Printers, Idaho. Interesting since largely based on information supplied by Toraichi Kono.
CHAPLIN SOCIETIES:
The Charlie Chaplin Film Co., Bonnie McCourt, 300 South Topanga Boulevard, Topanga, Ca 90290, USA. Publishes newsletter, Limelight, 1994 to date.
The Chaplin Society, 69 Chalkwell Esplanade, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex SS0 8JH, England; e-mail: info@ChaplinSociety.com. Publishes quarterly newsletter, The Chaplin Courier, 1999 to date.