Barbra The First Decade (The Films and Career of Barbra Streisand) [Hardcover]

James Spada (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Citadel Press Inc.,U.S.; 1st edition (October 3, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806504064
• ISBN-13: 978-0806504063
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,884,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

As a thirteen-year-old kid in Staten Island, James Spada started the first Marilyn Monroe Memorial Fan Club. He produced four bulletins and one yearbook a year for four years, when he had to disband the club due to lack of money.
In college he founded EMK: The Edward M. Kennedy Quarterly, and worked as an intern in Senator Kennedy's Boston office in 1970.

At 23 his first book, Barbra: The First Decade--The Films and Career of Barbra Streisand, was published. He followed that up with the authorized book The Films of Robert Redford. He went on to write illustrated coffee-table books about Streisand, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Midler, Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty, and Jane Fonda.

In 1987 his first non-pictorial biography, Grace: The Secret Lives of a Princess, became a major international bestseller. He followed that up with intimate biographies of Peter Lawford, Bette Davis, Barbra Streisand, and Julia Roberts.

His writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, People, Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, The New York Times Book Review, McCall's, the Los Angeles Times, the London Sunday Express, and many other publications.

In 2010 his first work of fiction, Days When My Heart was Volcanic--A Novel of Edgar Allan Poe, was published.

In recent years he has become equally renowned as a photographer of the male nude. His first collection, Black & White Men, was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award as the Best Visual Arts Book of 2000.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Although out of date now, a must for Barbra-philes, April 12, 2005

By 

jon sieruga (Redlands, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Barbra: The First Decade: The Films and Career of Barbra Streisand (Paperback)

Even though Karen Swenson attempted a sequel, and James Spada himself followed this up with a terrific rewrite/second chapter, this mid-'70's career overview of Barbra Streisand is simply smashing. Charting her movie career up to "For Pete's Sake" and her music career up to "Barbra Streisand...and Other Musical Instruments", Spada's passion for every-detail-Barbra is apparent and his writing is straight-forward, amusing, informative and candid. Each Streisand album and movie is annotated with reviews, record sleeve and poster artwork, and background information in Spada's summary. I still learn a lot from this book, especially the story behind the "Barbra Joan" photo-jacket session(annoyed on the front, smiling on the back). Spada doesn't reveal the secrets behind Streisand's Quadraphonic recordings(some which differ slightly), nor does he include every Streisand 45 single or mention the differences between those and the album versions, but still, this is quite a job!! Filled with incredible b&w photographs and behind-the-scenes stuff, any Streisand fan will cherish it.