jjares reviewed on 2/14/2021 + 3295 more book reviews

What a wasted talent; John Barrymore was one of those people who were hypersensitive to the deaths of relatives. He seems to have started drinking early and often. At one time, I had some ink-on-gold drawings of John Barrymore; I think he would have preferred to be an artist. However, stagecraft paid better than being a starving artist. I was surprised to see that the siblings (Ethel, John, and Lionel) performed together more often than I was aware of before reading this book.

Barrymore died in 1942, at the age of 60. Although the youngest of the three, John predeceased the others by 17 years. With the chapter intros of quotes by Barrymore, the reader can see that he had insight into his own motives and actions but seemed indifferent to changing anything. An interesting life.

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