Foster Hirsch: 4 books

The first full-scale life of the controversial, greatly admired yet often underrated director/producer who was known as “Otto the Terrible.” Nothing about Otto Preminger was small, trivial, or self-denying, from his privileged upbringing in Vienna as the son of an improbably successful...

Edna Ferber’s classic paean of love to the Mississippi River and the showboats that ran up and down it is once again available in hardcover as a facsimile of the first edition. First published in 1926, this timeless tale of the Cotton Blossom, Cap’n Andy, his shrewd wife Parthy, and their beautiful...

From 1905 to the crash of 1929, Sam Shubert (1874-1905) and his brothers Lee (1874-1953) and J. J. (1878-1963), despite poor beginnings and near-illiteracy, created a theater monopoly unrivaled in history. Their ruthless business tactics and showmanship made 42nd Street the heart of American popular...

A revised and updated edition of the definitive study of film noir—the most original genre of American cinema—with a new afterword by the author Since The Dark Side of the Screen first appeared over two decades ago, it has served as the essential take on what has become one of today’s...