The Grouchophile: An Illustrated Life

by MARX GROUCHO

The life and times of Groucho Marx. He is photographed with family, friends and other stars.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Humor, Film, Memoir

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Brian Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d be lying if I said I read every word of this book, but everything I did read was hilarious. Like looking through Groucho’s lifelong personal and professional scrapbook/photo album (like 600 photos!) with the man himself. All captions were written by Groucho and were full of memories, jokes, and wild stories. Essential for Marx Brothers completists.

[Mike Fendrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

A photo-autobiography of Groucho Marx. If you do not know who he is, you should. A fun book.

[Kimberly Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

#127

Although I loved the Marx brothers, their movies, and "You Bet Your Life".... I wasn't thrilled with this book.

Not only was much of it redundant, but it was very confusing to read. There were many photos, but the captions were not usually with the photo but on another page & not all were numbered to correspond with the matching photo.

The writing was split into two columns w/ numbers at the beginning of each subject (?), but with different (non-sequential) numbers of the quotes on the same pages... It made no sense.

The Introduction & prologue were long & didn't make much sense as to why they were there... and the fact that Groucho actually had to get permission to quote himself & conversations he had w/ other people, from his other books & from the movie companies was strange.

I liked the photos, but could not tolerate the text... It wasn't in sequence, more like a random compilation of memories.

I'll say that the brothers were talented and funny, but still the book made no sense to me.

[Curlysue · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Michael Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, really liked it

[Rob Smith, Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite of all the books of the Marx Brothers. The focus is Groucho but all are covered one way of another - even Gummo! Love the reproductions of so much ephemera, photos and text. This book covers the lot.

It would have been complete if the book had been published a year later, but isn't it great to know that Groucho got to see this before he died!

I believe this book is the source of the start of why I work so hard looking for memorabilia and photos for our Florida museums. This book clearly shows the importance of dates, locations, etc. that is included in documents.

Bottom line: I recommend this book! 10 out of 10 points.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a visual joy, with hundreds of photos of Groucho and the rest of the Marx family. There isn't a whole lot of original text, however, as most of it is lifted from Groucho's earlier books. The pictures make it all worthwhile, however.