Product Description

The epitome of grace, independence, and wit, Lauren Bacall continues to project an audacious spirit and pursue on-screen excellence. The product of an extraordinary mother and a loving extended family, she produced, with Humphrey Bogart, some of the most electric and memorable scenes in movie history. After tragically losing Bogart, she returned to New York and a brilliant career in the theatre. A two-time Tony winner, she married and later divorced her second love, Jason Robards, and never lost sight of the strength that made her a star.

Customer Reviews (35)

Lovable
I loved reading here where she left off in her first book. Im glad to know how she and her children have lived since the death of Bogie. A good read!

Great buy!!!
This seller delivers what they promised!I would do business with them again in a heartbeat!

THE GREATEST BOOK EVER!
I'm not a big reader but this book was the best I have ever read. The way it was written made me feel like I was rigth there living this wonderful life of this incrediable person. It was a book I could not put down and read it in less than 4 days. I loved it. I wish they would make a movie on her life, I know it would be worth watching.

Slow Start but a Great Read
I put this book down after the first 20 pages and left it sitting for months. The book just didn't grab me at all. I picked it up again recently and couldn't put it down. Once the book starts rolling, and Bacall finds her rythm, it is great. The pages on her romance with Bogart and his subsequent illness and death will make you weep. She has a few brief sections where she discusses her politics. Those only take up a few paragraphs and can be easily skipped without missing relevant or interesting content. This is a great read and well worth owning and passing along to friends.

Boring, she should have published only one copy and read it "By Herself"
Boring, Shallow, Very self-absorbed (much liked her previous one). This was mainly a political statement, used to trash politicians, which was clearly not my understanding until reading it.I finally finished and rather than give it away I THREW it away (which I rarely do).I wanted to spare others the pain. Spare yourself the torture and the cost. ... Read more

Product Description
"In a word, LAUREN BACALL BY MYSELF is terrific...one of the real-life heroines of our time...and she wrote this book as she lived it."
BOSTON GLOBE
"She's a real Joe. You'll fall in love with her like everybody else."
-Humphrey Bogart
... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

Liked Her More When I Knew Less
I came across this book in a second hand shop and being a fan of the Bogie-Bacall movies decided to buy it. From the outset, I got the impression that Bacall is wanting to tell us only what she wants us to believe rather than the way it really was. I found it a little hard to believe that New York raised 19 yr. old could be that totally naive and sheltered , yet in less than 6 months she's having an affair with a married man 25 years her senior. It didn't hurt that he was also one of the biggest film stars of the day and although there are the agonizing separations (except for the frequent late night trysts) while he divorces Mayo, the pot at the end of the rainbow turned out very good for Bacall. Her marriage to Bogart instantly placed her in the rarified air of Hollywood superstars (who we read about ad nauseum) and afforded her the opportunity to turn down roles that would expose her very limited range as an actor at that time. Theirs may have been the "storybook romance" but Betty definitely played her cards right and that fact bleeds through her words on page after page. Whether dumping her kids to go campaigning for pseudo-intellectual Adlai Stevenson or globe trotting with Bogie and Kate on the set of The African Queen, the union with Bogie was the winning lottery ticket for Ms. Bacall. Even after his death, her many publicized affairs don't quite jibe with the image she paints as the "nice Jewish girl". I came away with the feeling that if not an out and out gold digger, Bacall at the very least was a pretty slick opportunist. By Myself shattered an illusion. Kinda makes me wish I'd have passed this one up.

A Real Movie Star and A Real Person
Although written many years ago, "Lauren Bacall By Myself" is an absorbing and relevant book. She is still alive and well remembered by many movie-goers who saw the first Bacall/Bogart movies. Her first-person memoir shows the couple as very real people who reach Hollywood stardom and are very much in love. Their children are as important as their careers. Their life together is filled detailed descriptions of their many Hollywood friends; she name-drops because these are indeed friends and people who enjoy laughter together.

Then tragedy comes with Humphrey Bogart's illness and eventual death. He is mourned by family, by actors who knew and admired him, and by his thousands of fans.

Lauren, continues to act. She describes trying to replace Bogart with other male celebrities; she admits making big mistakes with her some of her choices. The "By Myself" of the title brings her to her own eventual theatrical success as she continues making movies and at last becomes the stage actor she has always longed to be. APPLAUSE to her for making it on her own.

Great read, very personal and well written
This book is very enjoyable.One of the best biographies I have read.It's very well written and very personal.Recommended.

Bogie and Baby and more
Lauren Bacall's 1984 autobiography details her humble beginnings, how modeling led to acting, and her marriages and love affairs. She metBogie on the set of her first movie when she was 19 and he was 43 and married.They fell in love at first sight and had a good marriage until his death.Her next husband was Jason Robards, Jr.; his drinking made for trouble from the start.The ups and downs of her movie and Broadway careers and her love of politics (and politicians) round out the book.

The woman who emerges from the pages is pretty much what I expected - strong, independent, and passionate - but also quite self-centered and spoiled. She's had a charmed life and makes no excuses for her shortcomings.

The book is full of famous tinseltown names and fabulous jet-set locations.She writes as if she were talking, often using ungrammatical half-sentences which slowed me down sometimes, but that is a minor quibble.I heartily recommend it to her fans.

great look at a great dame
buy it used.good read for the beach. then see her movies. ... Read more

Product Description
"CANDID AND HONEST...A philosophical looking-backward and forward--an inquiry into the question 'Is that all there is?' "
--Liz Smith
New York Newsday
"FRANK AND AMUSING...[AND] BRIMMING WITH CONFESSIONS...Part career memoir and part meditation on what it's like to be a single woman of lingering glamour, enduring vitality and advancing age...The book has the Bacall voice behind it. Her writing echoes her deep, sardonic, no-nonsense timbre and jazzy tempo....Bacall is at her best when talking about friends she has loved and watched die. Bernstein, she says, was more than a little seductive; Huston, more than a little remote; Olivier, a survivor to the end."
--Chicago Sun-Times
"HER PROSE IS SPARE AND HONEST....A kaleidoscope of thoughts and ideas on loneliness, aging, and above all, surviving...There are also poignant reminiscences of the golden years of Hollywood and many of its leading creators."
--The Washington Post Book World
"SHE REMINDS US OF SOME FAMILIAR TRUTHS WORTH ATTENDING TO. . . .What she's writing about, Ms. Bacall explains, is 'life' and indeed her musings about getting older, about intimations of mortality, about living solo, about letting go of one's children will resonate with women who, like her, are of a certain age."
--The New York Times Book Review
"ENGROSSING. . .POIGNANT."
--People


From the Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great Read about a Fabulous Life
Lauren Betty Bacall writes a very interesting memior about life and love in Hollywood. She doen't merely name drop. In fact she focuses on her life and the people that revolved into it. She met quite a few interesting people, but doesn't seem to use that to make her book more exciting. It was very interesting to read how the relationship with Bogie happened and how she struggled through the relationship with Jason robards. The book was enlightening as to how a real person in a time of great stress deals with loss and the breakup of relationships. It is a must for true biography readers.

History Teacher's Review
Bacall, Lauren.
Now
New York: Alfred A. Knopf
214 pp., $23.00. ISBN 0-394-57412-5
Publication Date September 1994

Lauren Bacall, is a screen legend, has been a star of movies, television, and theater for over sixty years and her book tells the story of how she feels about her work, her children,
her homes, her acting, her friends, and more.

The introduction of the book gives a glimpse into what her life was like between the ages of forty and sixty, how she has lived her life and the impact people she has met have had on her life. She views life at 70 as a survivor and considered herself lucky to still be acting at all.

Ms. Bacall does not know what she would do with herself if she did not work.She views working as a reason to get up out of bed, if your working you can pay the bills. The most important thing is that when you work in a movie, on television, or on stage you'll always be doing something you love to do.

She is grateful for being close to her daughter Leslie Bogart.She is more in love with her grandchildren from her sons Steve Bogart and Sam Robards then she ever thought possible.

She has realized late in life that she needs her children which surprises her. She examines all the fears that she went through in getting a country house in Amagansett. Once she had it then she spent years continually making as many changes to it as
possible.In the end when she sold it she realized she had spent more time living in other places than this house.

She recognizes that the older she gets the more difficult it is for her to be able to still get great roles, she realizes that work is much harder physically.She is human and points out body parts that have changed and is really comfortable with this.

She comes to terms with her own mortality and how hard it is to still be alive when so many of her friends are now gone.Her life has come full circle, her daughter Leslie got married.
Her son Steve is married with 3 wonderful kids. Her son Sam's marriage ended, but she knows he will find someone else.

In the end she is still alone and she is reconciled to the fact that she no longer wants that for herself anymore. She is always the eternal optimist and thinks that maybe there is someone out there for her.She is a strong woman who has done it her way and not followed all the rules of Hollywood.

She still considers Humphrey Bogart to have been the love of her life and will never get over his death.
Rachel D. Dvorkin
Elgin, Illinois

Read the other one first
Read Bacall's "By Myself" before this - she writes as if she assumes that you have. She actually rehashes a lot of what she wrote in that book: her work on Broadway, people in her life, etc. I didn't necessarily mind that - I read this one directly after the other so it complemented it. I would've found it very slight by itself, though. In this one she also talks about putting together her dream home and finding it lacking, and about her grown kids and their lives, some other topics too.

Good followup to "By Myself."
"Now" isn't as fulfilling as was "By Myself" but is still a good short read for anyone interested in Lauren Bacall. The book covers the 15 years after her first publication "By Myself." Ifyou're new to Lauren I would suggest reading "By Myself" firstand if you would like to see a more personal side of the actress give thisbook a try. ... Read more

Product Description
Humphrey Bogart's son examines his father's life as an actor, a man, a husband, and a father, as he presents a picture of a man with a tough image that belied his ambitions and vulnerabilities. Reprint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

In Search of Myself using my father as a prop
This is an interesting biography in a "Hollywood-sort-of-way." It makes an early claim of being disgusted with the Hollywood way of life, and then proceeds to revel in it as much as possible. That in itself would not have been so bad if the author had been more honest about his motives. It seemed clear after reading the book that he was really in search of himself, not at all in search of his father, who even though he died while the author was only seven, left him a rich legacy upon which to fashion a life. What it appears that he sought to do here was to use his father's fame and death as a prop, an alibi, an excuse for his own eventual failing and shortcomings. So the book should be retitled: In Search of Myself, through my father's reputation and death.

This is not the way books that begin in the way this one did, usually end. Typically there is a cathartic moment; space and time for a clear head to assert itself, and then smooth sailing afterwards.

Not so here.

All that is certain here is that both of the author's parents knew who they were, what they wanted and how to proceed about getting it. They were successful actors and parents with a rich and fulfilling social life, arguably a rare commodity in Hollywood even today.

Steve, on the other hand, it seems, never figured any of this out for himself. It was Steve's life that was turned upside down at the age of seven with his father's death never to be fully "righted" again. His eureka moment did not come until he married his present wife, and then only after much prodding and "coaching" from her

The fact that he never quite got any traction in life on his own after his father's death is a very large statement about him, his own ability to adjust and get down to the very important business of living: as in maturing into a normal functioning adult -- the quintessential problem of "coming of age" for all youths everywhere.

And while I found the many vignettes about his parent's movie careers and marriages, etc., interesting, the book altogether lacked the kind of depth or punch that would convey the message that Steve finally discovered what life without his father is all about. I was hoping for a better resolution of the author's struggles in his (by normal standards) only a mildly complicated life. After all, he and his sister were loved and well-cared for, had enormous advantages in life over most average kids. But he himself chose not to think or drink deep from the cup of life until he had reached middle age. This sounds exactly like what a spoiled brat would do: fritter away half his life and then use his father's fame and death to cover his tracks and record of failures?

In fact, he pouted away more than half of his life: most of his teens as well as his young adult life for no convincing or discernable reasons that one can find in the book. However, giving him the benefit of the doubt, the best one could say about the author is that he missed the best of his rare parent's lessons: of how to become an independent whole human being with a life purpose of striving for excellence.

Unless I missed a lot, it seems that Steve substituted pouting and "acting out" for passion; had no recognizable interests and lived only through his parents, vicariously. Was he really seeking independence from being "Bogie's son," or seeking to hide behind Bogie's fame?Lackluster, three Stars

Perfection
Excelent seller. Fast transaction. Highest quality and all around perfection. I give them my highest rating. Thank you!

son of a legend...
I don't imagine any of us really know what it is like to be the son of a legend..the incredible pressure that must come with living up to your father..it sounds likea wonderful easy life but as Stephen Bogart let's us know it's not..a book full of anecdotes and stories, self-examination, a bit too much whining for my tastes but nevertheless some tasty morsels can be found in this book..

Would you like some cheese with that whine?
The book is a collection of stores from interviews conducted by Stephen.Who, after a battle with cocaine, removing the chip from his shoulder, and maturing, decided to find out who his fater was.The book is a fast read, has a few interesting stories, and the pics are good.Glad I checked it out of the library and didn't pay for it.

Insightful tale of how Bogart's son came to terms with his fame
Heard BOGART: IN SEARCH OF MY FATHER, written and
read by Stephen Humphrey Bogart . . . his son was only eight
when he died and for a long time, it was difficult for him to
deal with his legendary father . . . only with the encouragement
of his famous mother, Lauren Bacall, was he finally able to
come to terms with some of the anger he felt toward his father.

I'm still not quite sure that I understand this feeling; it's almost
as if he blamed his father for dying . . . however, Stephen
Bogart did a good job of researching his father Humphrey, and
he shares many amusing anecdotes that I not heard previously.

In addition, I enjoyed reading about how Bogart and Bacall
met and fell in love.

BOGART: IN SEARCH OF MY FATHER gave me the impression
that Humphrey had no idea how to raise his children, but it
was clear that he did love them . . . Stephen Bogart now
appreciates this fact, too.
... Read more

Product Description
Lauren Bacall's autobiography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

More excellence from Citadel's "Films of..." series
I'm a fan of Citadel's "Films of..." series, owning nearly 40 books, and also of Lawrence Quirk's work; he's one of the best film writers with a solid Hollywood pedigree (his father was editor of _The Hollywood Reporter_), having also written biographies of Bette Davis, Claudette Colbert and Jane Wyman and many others. _The Films of Lauren Bacall_ fits neatly into the Citadel series with a concise biography of Ms. Bacall and discussions of all her movies, both those in which she has starring roles and her bit-part appearances. For me, one of the attractions of the "Films Of..." series is the overflowing abundance of outstanding black & white photographs of the stars and their movies, and this book is top-notch in this regard. Highly recommended, especially as a companion piece to Bacall's own autobiography _By Myself_. ... Read more

Product Description
Lauren Bacall's life has been widely covered by the media ever since her screen debut in To Have and Have Not with Humphrey Bogart in 1944. This volume is a comprehensive critical guide to all aspects of Miss Bacall's career in film, radio, television and stage. Her personal life, no less extraordinary, with marriages to Bogart and Jason Robards, is documented in a biographical essay. This volume provides cast and production credits, plot synopses, review excerpts of all film, radio and stage appearances, and a detailed, annotated bibliography for additional research. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

LAUREN BACALL RULES!
Hey,as far as I am concerned Lauren Bacall is not only pretty but talented!LOVED How to marry a millionar!OK BUY it!B~Y~E! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

casablanca
I think this is a wonderful romance film. As a personal fan of Humphrey Bogart I think his part was excellent. This book is deffiently worth reading. ... Read more

Product Description
For her children Steven, Leslie and Sam. And in memory of my mother. / Inside of cover ... Read more

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Word count: 857. ... Read more

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160 lined pages, hardcover printed suede-like material cover with satin ribbon marker. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! To Have and Have Not (1944) is a thriller romance war adventure film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall that is nominally based on the novel of the same name by Ernest Hemingway.The film is set in the Caribbean city of Fort de France, Martinique under the Vichy regime in the summer of 1940, shortly after the fall of France to the Germans. In this exotic location, the world-weary fishing boat captain Harry 'Steve' Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) is urged to help the French Resistance smuggle some people onto the island. He refuses, until the client, Johnson (Walter Sande) who has been hiring out his fishing boat (and owes him $825) is accidentally shot before paying him. ... Read more