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My Wicked Wicked Ways: The Autobiography of Errol Flynn

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walinja
autobiography
The Best Errol Flynn life story
What a life!
A Star, A Legend, A Man

My Wicked Wicked Ways: The Autobiography of Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn
Manufacturer: Cooper Square Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Errol Flynn Signature Collection, Vol. 1 (Captain Blood / The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex / The Sea Hawk / They Died with Their Boots On / Dodge City / The Adventures of Errol Flynn)
Errol Flynn - Portrait of a Swashbuckler
Beam Ends
Errol Flynn: The Life and Career
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ASIN: 0815412509

Book Description

Scandalous film star Errol Flynn tells all in this autobiography, detailing his pre-Hollywood career as a mercenary, and his trial for rape in 1943.

Customer Reviews:

walinja.......2007-05-15

Great book! Didn't realize the remarkable lifestyle he lead before his acting career. It's a book where you take your time to read. WJR

autobiography.......2007-03-09

Most of this book is accurate, but some of it still leaves you wondering how much was fabricated to enhance the stars notoriety. Errol Flynn's private life was as glamorized as on the screen. What he lived didn't need to be embellished because the whole world followed his escapades almost daily in the newspapers and trade sheets. This is a fun read, full of humor and a look at the world before progress stepped in.

The Best Errol Flynn life story.......2007-03-06

This autobiography is a real page turner. I really didn't realize Errol's life was so diverse.
I happen to be watching the TCM channel during Errol Flynn month.
I didn't know he made so many films (wearing pants, I'd only seen him in tights).

I became more interested when I heard this beautiful man (I assumed Errol had been a privileged Hollywood brat) lived in New Guinea for years before he made it in Hollywood.
I couldn't believe it.

I worked in Port Moresby (the capital of New Guinea) for about a month in 1999. I'd worked at many regions overseas; this was the worst hands down. On my first day our host explained the locals may be the ugliest people you've ever seen but they are the sweetest. I was offended by the comment until I got to the hotel (the only hotel in Port Moresby at the time). Wow, all I can say is the biggest feature on many of the locals was there heads.

By the end of the week our host mentioned there was a sort of club during the weekend. My colleagues asked if the locals were wearing shoes. I had different plans, like putting a chair up against my hotel room door. I watched the only two channels on TV. One channel displayed mostly Australians selling livestock the other was a kind of local channel showing severe rain storms destroying huts throughout New Guinea.

I'd ordered pancakes at the hotel once. They were served with the syrup poured on already. I don't expect the locals to know about IHOP but there were large bugs swimming around on the plate too.

Another time I ordered a pot of tea with lemon.
The sliced fruit appeared to have been sucked on prior to being delivered. For the remainder of the trip I ate nothing but Australian mini-bar food which consisted of chips and chocolate.

When we left work in the evening we regularly observed the locals lighting fires in the middle of the road. At the end of our visit one colleague had severe bed bug bites all over his legs and another had a nasty cough.

In addition to the thick green algae in the pool, having to skip over backed up sewer run off in front of the hotel, the strong urine odor in the business center and our hotel room showers and our missing clothing. I was trying my best to get out of there without contracting malaria.

So I definitely had to find out more about this excellent actor. This book is great. I read it twice. Errol describes New Guinea almost the same as it is today. New Guinea still has 100 or more different dialects and languages and most locals are culturally still light years away from the 20th century.

I definitely believe instead of contracting malaria in New Guinea Errol may have died there.
For Wicked Wicked Ways, Mr. Flynn actually dictated his life story to a ghost writer and approved its final manuscript. Unfortunately he died before its release. It was a number one best seller then and it holds up well today. Errol's life story goes from his birth to the end of his Warner Brothers career, to his life in Jamaica.

It's also one of the better novels about Mr. Flynn. Believe it or not there are many novels about him that are poorly written with nonfactual, improbable information.
Everyone wants to make a buck.

What a life!.......2007-02-28

It's too bad they didn't allow Errol Flynn to entitle his autobiography, "In Like Me", as he reportedly intended. That would have perfectly captured the wit, humor and unapologetic joie de vivre of this book and of the man himself.

This is an engrossing and very funny book, about a man who drank life to the lees and had a heck of a great time doing so. Although his Hollywood experiences are fascinating, they almost pale next to the other chapters of his life, from being a colonial nabob in New Guinea, to bumming and conning his way acrosss Asia and the South Seas, to the Spanish Civil War, his battles with his parents and ex-wives, his sailing, deep-sea diving, flying and his myriad amorous pursuits. The man was a true adventurer, in the pattern of some of his most famous swashbuckling roles, which is perhaps what made him such a great fit for those parts. However, several notes of bitterness run through his narrative. Flynn considered himself typecast in unchallenging action-movie roles, while he really wanted parts in which he could exhibit his acting skills. He was also resentful about the fact that his inveterate womanizing had rendered him a phallic symbol in the eyes of the public, when he was actually a well-read man with intellectual interests and literary ambitions. His regrets are understandable, although self-inflicted, but in the final tally life was very good to him.

On a side note, as a fan of the Flashman series of historical novels, it was interesting to me how their author- George MacDonald Fraser- has said that Errol Flynn would have made the perfect big screen Flashman. He said that Flynn fit the part like a glove, from the looks and style to the "shifty quality". In reading this autobiography, I was struck by the uncanny resemblance; in very many ways, Errol Flynn_was_Harry Flashman- in his charm and personality, from the exotic adventures to the hijinks and skirt-chasing. The man bought and sold slaves in New Guinea for crying out loud- how much more Flashie can one get? It made me wonder how much influence this book had on the later series of novels, because even in the literary voice of the books, Flashman seems to be an avatar of Flynn, from the saucy turn of phrase to the devious little asides giving advice to "young fellows" about women and BS-ing one's way through the world. Just an observation.

Flynn was a complex man, to be sure. His father was a world-renowned scientist, his mother a descendant of a Bounty mutineer. It somewhat seemed as if those two impulses were at the basis of a lifelong inner conflict. There was a contemplative, intellectual side of him that was at war with the call of the blood to seek out frontiers and cross them, to discover new experiences and embrace them. The man of adventure came out on top at an early age, but the other side of him never died. This is a first rate, extremely entertaining autobiography, which I highly recommend.

A Star, A Legend, A Man.......2006-03-17

Here in the Rocky Mountain region, we used to call them "rounders" which meant men who were a little wild on the inside. Flynn was a rounder. No, I didn't care if the book was entirely, 100% true. Yes, I think 90% of what he said was true, and the embellishments are easily forgiven.

Flynn was the real deal, regardless of what anyone says.

People who criticize him for recounting his exploits overseas say less about Flynn and say more about their own, sheltered, inexperience of the real world.

If I had to make a judgment call, I would say that this is a book for men. If you are a young man in your 20's or 30's, still lusting for adventure on the inside, but forced to conform to the corporate world on the outside, you will discover a kindred spirit in dear Brother Errol.

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Still my favorite
Song Sung Blue
It doesn't get any better than this!
Wonderful read.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!!!

My Wicked Wicked Ways
Sandra Cisneros
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Loose Woman: Poems
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ASIN: 0679418210
Release Date: 1992-11-17

Book Description

Hailed as "not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one" (The New York Times Book Review), Sandra Cisneros has firmly established herself as an author of electrifying talent. Here are verses, comic and sad, radiantly pure and plainspoken, that reveal why her stories have been praised for their precision and musicality of language.

Customer Reviews:

Still my favorite.......2005-09-10

Out of all the books that Sandra Cisneros has written, this one has effected me the most and is my favorite. Her poems strike you deep in the heart, and there is still a veil of humor to each one. Inspiring, bold, and beautiful, I recommend this collection to any lover of poetry.

Song Sung Blue.......2002-09-29

The tragic are those figures who face devestation with a certain unblinking acceptance- not stoicism, not heroism- but the ability to look at themselves clearly.

Sandra Cisneros, in her first collection of poems "My Wicked Wicked Ways" was able to evoke this sense of drama repeatedly in her monologues of fictional characters and in songs which seemed to be sung by the poet herself about her life. My personal favourite "Something Crazy" illustrates the necessary conditions of the form:

The man with the blue hat
doesn't come back anymore.
He stopped a long time ago.

Before I got married. Before the kids came.
Nobody looks at me like that anymore.
...
I was young then, understand?
Nobody ever looked at me before.
I even dreamed that he might take me
to my highschool dance, imagine.
Waitresses have come and gone,
I've stayed on.

The speaker is stationary, in the restaurant where she works- the man in the blue hat is already a thing of the past when the poem opens. She loves him because he is the ONLY thing that ever came along that loved her or that she could love. In its tone and perfection this poem reminds one of the torch-song as perfected by Billy Holiday. As in that genre the speaker stands alone and sings of a love, an overwhelming passion, almost always in the past. What is present is the pain- and the understatement of the pain and the ability through an embrace of the nostalgia of love to transcend it for a moment in a reach for remembered happiness, and recalled warmth despite the present cold. This is the tension of the genre. The speaker is pinned, unable to leave their grief, but attempts to transcend it in a song.

It is the formula, arguably, of any powerful dramatic song or poem- the speaker in pain. But the formula always depends upon the absence of a choice- these people are dramatic because fate has placed them where they are and they could not, whether they wish to or not, be anywhere else.

The title poem of "My Wicked Wicked Ways" picks up on the author's Don Juan Dad, tags him with the mixed mockery (not least self-mockery) and affection of Errol Flynn's autobiography title- and makes the best of a painful reality by recycling this family condition- as best she can- into her own bravura stance. In the poem's photo of a young married couple the father's coming affairs are not yet seen, and neither is the nature of the baby in her mother's arms:

She does not know yet
I will turn out bad.

The stance which will emerge is that of the "bad" girl, the "Loose Woman", the one who loves 'em and leaves 'em when fate or, crucially, a pose of independence, requires. I say that this stance is a pose or theatrical attitude because I find the poems of heartache and loneliness much more convincing.

In "Loose Woman", the follow up collection, the stance overwhelms the tragedy, in this book the song is sung blue and pure. Very few weak poems here. A selection that stings your throat like a shot of tequila. An album you'll put on your turn table again and again.

It doesn't get any better than this!.......2000-04-25

Sandra Cisneros is undoubtedly my favorite poet of all time. Her writing is honest, beautiful, simple, humorous, poignant and sad, all at the same time. "My Wicked Wicked Ways" is Cisneros at her best - fresh and sassy, biting and funny, thoughtful and independent. I sooooo highly recommend this book to all - whether you are an avid poetry-enthusiast or are just starting to have interest in the subject. She's wonderful!

Wonderful read........1999-04-30

Sandra Cisneros is one of my favorite female authors. I was first introduced to her work in a women's studies class. We read "Women Hollering Creek" and after that I read all of her other stuff. This paricular collection of poems is fantastic. My favorite is One Last Poem For Richard.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!!!.......1999-02-20

These are poems that will make you smile, cry, and take your breath away. A good friend reccomended Sandra Cisneros to me several years ago, and I am so thankful. I have read much of her work, and have never been disappointed. This volume of poetry is one of my favorites.

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My Wicked, Wicked Ways
Errol Flynn
Manufacturer: Putnam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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MY WICKED, WICKED WAYS
Errol Fylnn
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My Wicked, Wicked Ways
Errol Flynn
Manufacturer: Dell
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Product Description

Here, in his own words, Flynn reveals his incredible romp through fifty fantastic years, in which he brashly traded in slaves, stood trial for rape and murder, tricked South Seas natives and loved their women... clawed, brawled and strutted his way from Down Under to the top of Hollywood and London stardom

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ERROL FLYNN
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Dana Jurcic
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My Wicked, Wicked Ways
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Manufacturer: Dell
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Manufacturer: Dell
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