By Myself, Lauren Bacall

I recently read "By Myself", the autobiography of Lauren Bacall. This book was published in 1978 by Knopf. I was lucky enough to find it at one of my library's book sales for only a quarter. Our library has about a dozen book sales each year. The books come not only from the library shelves, but from people who donate books they no longer want or need.

This is a great book about Lauren Bacall's life, including both of her marriages (Humphrey Bogart and Jason Robards). It's a fast read as Ms. Bacall isn't into flowery words and long descriptions of how the sun set each day or how the smell of roses lingered in the air. She's straight to the point. When she "name-drops", she's very casual and matter-of-fact about it.

I really didn't know that much about Humphrey Bogart or her relationship with him until I read this book. Casablanca is one of my favorite films, so I really enjoyed reading about Bogart. Bacall's start in show business was as a model, which morphed into acting. Bogie was still married to his third wife when they started seeing each other. There's also a lot of drinking that goes on, but I guess that was standard for the time period. They were good friends with Spencer Tracey and Katharine Hepburn, whom Bacall calls Katie. Tracey and Hepburn visited Bogart every night, after his discharge from the hospital, until he died. Warning: The section that deals with his death is a tear jerker.

This picture made the cover of Harper's Bazaar. My fave of the two of them. This is a scan of the back cover, which looks like a poor quality picture since the book's so old.

Thanks for your visit today!
Michelle

Linking up to Art @ Home for Literary Friday.