Hollywood Babylon, by Kenneth Anger

Hollywood Babylon, by Kenneth Anger. 1984 fourth printing Dell paperback. 433 pages, very nice condition.

Hollywood Babylon is the classic book by avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger. It details alleged scandals involving Hollywood stars from the silent era through the 1960s, including Mary Astor, Clara Bow, Charles Chaplin, Jeanne Eagels, Frances Farmer, Errol Flynn, Judy Garland, John Gilbert, Juanita Hansen, Jean Harlow, Barbara La Marr, Carole Landis, Marilyn Monroe, Mae Murray, Mary Nolan, Ramon Novarro, Marie Prevost, Wallace Reid, Alma Rubens, Olive Thomas, Thelma Todd, Lana Turner, Rudolph Valentino, and Lupe Vélez. Hollywood Babylon also includes chapters on the Fatty Arbuckle–Virginia Rappe scandal, the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the Hollywood blacklist, the murder of Sharon Tate, and Confidential magazine.

The book was banned shortly after it was first published in the U.S. in 1965, and remained unavailable until reprinted ten years later. Upon its second release in 1975, The New York Times said of it, "If a book such as this can be said to have charm, it lies in the fact that here is a book without one single redeeming merit."