Monday, July 7, 2014

John Wayne's library

Almost finished reading John Wayne: The Life and Legend by Scott Eyman. The author obviously deplores Wayne's politics but likes him a lot nevertheless. I came across this:
.... Wayne's library was unfocused, but with an emphasis on his business. He had first editions of The Searchers and True Grit, novels by Zane Grey, stories by Bret Harte, coffee-table books of Frederic Remington and Tom Phillips.

There were conservative-oriented books on politics, pop fiction (Jaws, Centennial) and some very un-pop literary fiction: Nabokov's Lolita. There were books on Hollywood westerns, a signed copy of Darryl Zanuck's biography, unsigned copies of books about Spencer Tracy, Montgomery Clift, and Marilyn Monroe, as well as compatriots such as Raoul Walsh and Edward Dmytryk. He had a surprising taste for Tolkien, with hardcovers of all the Lord of the Rings novels. ....
That last surprised me, too.

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