Charlie Chaplin's Own Story

This first of Chaplin's two published autobiographies has been nearly inaccessible until now. Covering the period of Chaplin's life from his obscure birth to his signing, in 1916, of a $670,000 contract with the Mutual Film Corporation, the book has usually been dismissed as a ghostwritten and unreliable fabrication. Chaplin biographer John McCabe, however, observes that "at times the book is certainly accurate in spirit if not in detail." The republication of Charlie Chaplin's Own Story enables readers to discover how at the age of twenty-seven "the most popular man in the world" wished to be viewed by a public who knew him almost exclusively as the inefatigable Tramp. This work is the most elaborate and intriguing of Chaplin's fictionalized self-portraits. Professor Geduld's detailed introduction provides an authoritative account of Chaplin's theatrical career, which Chaplin covers erratically. Extensive annotations deal with little-known aspects of Chaplin's early life.