The Ragman’s Son: An Autobiography.

DOUGLAS, Kirk.

$350.00

Item Number: 123711

London: Simon & Schuster, 1988.

First edition of Kirk Douglas’ insightful autobiography. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated with photographs. Association copy, inscribed by him in the year of publication on the title page “To Sally – who never gets enough! – I hope I gave you what you want – affectionately, Kirk Douglas – 1988.” The recipient, British photojournalist Sally Soames, worked for The Sunday Times from 1968 until 2000 and was highly regarded for her exclusively black and white portraits of many of the most prominent figures of the 20th century including Menachem Begin, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Thatcher, Sean Connery, Rudolf Nureyev, Alec Guinness and Andy Warhol. Soames, who was known to be a warm and personal journalist, performed extensive research on her subjects and developed intimate rapports with them during her process, resulting in striking and revealing portraits. In addition to the several world leaders Soames came to know and photograph, she captured the unique personalities of some of the world’s most gifted authors, poets, and playwrights. She published two books of photographs during her lifetime: Manpower (1987) with text by Robin Morgan and an introduction by Harold Evans and Writers (1995) with a preface by Norman Mailer. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.

In this profound and insightful autobiography, Douglas paints a searing and unforgettable picture of an almost Dickensian childhood of brutal poverty - the background that has dominated his life as an actor, father and man, fueling the great creative anger that has added such depth in his performances. With moving insight, he shows how the determination to overcome that childhood and succeed on his own led him to take roles that most stars of his magnitude would never have risked - Van Gogh, in Lust for Life; Spartacus the slave; the courageous, conscience-stricken Colonel Dax in Paths of Glory; and the agonized boxer Midge, in Champion, to name a few. "Authentic, revealing, unselfconscious... his performance here is a star turn" (Publishers Weekly).