Charlie Chaplin

Chaplan recalls "his boyhood; the early, casual days of the movies; how he evolved his style, his costumes, his plots, his sudden dazzling success; how he chose his leading ladies; his encounters with great stars and world figures, from Mary Pickford to Gandhi to Bernard Shaw to FDR; his emotional involvements and his four marriages . . . and the political accusations that made him decide to leave the United States."

My Autobiography

Charles Chaplin

Born into a theatrical family, Chaplin's father died of drink while his mother, unable to bear the poverty, suffered from bouts of insanity, Chaplin embarked on a film-making career which won him immeasurable success, as well as intense controversy. His extraordinary autobiography was first published in 1964 and was written almost entirely without reference to documentation - simply as an astonishing feat of memory by a 75 year old man. It is an incomparably vivid reconstruction of a poor London childhood, the music hall and then his prodigious life in the movies.