Biography

Brown, Karl. Adventures with D. W. Griffith. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973, 252 p.

Anecdotal reminiscence of working with Griffith. Brown was an assistant cinematographer to G. W. "Billy" Bitzer, Griffith's cinematographer, from 1913 and the making of The Birth of a Nation until Broken Blossoms and Griffith's return to New York in 1920.

Schickel, Richard. D. W. Griffith: An American Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984, 672 p.

Massive biography that synthesizes the work of many previously published and unpublished accounts and brings new insights to some of Griffith's lesser-known films. Some scholars have noted inaccuracies in Schickel's account of Griffith's career and in his descriptions of the films Griffith made for the Biograph Company.

Criticism

Agee, James. "David Wark Griffith." In his Agee on Film, pp. 313-18. New York: McDowell Oblensky, 1958.

Applauds Griffith's "epic and lyrical" vision as a filmmaker.

Andrew, Dudley. "Broken Blossoms: The Vulnerable Text and the Marketing of Masochism." In his Film in the Aura of Art, pp. 16-27. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.

Considers the artistic merits of Broken Blossoms.

Altman, Rick. "Dickens, Griffith, and Film Theory Today." The South Atlantic Quarterly 88, No. 2 (Spring 1989): 321-59.

With frequent references to Griffith's films, discusses various issues in contemporary film theory, particularly those relevant to the notion of "classicism" in the cinema.

Elsaesser, Thomas, and Barker, Adam, eds. Early Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative. London: British Film Institute, 1990, 424 p.

Collection of essays that addresses a wide range of issues relevant to the earliest period of filmmaking. While there are references to and discussions of his work throughout the book, four essays are devoted specifically to Griffith: Anne Friedberg's '"A Properly Adjusted Window': Vision and Sanity in D. W. Griffith's 1908-1909 Biograph Films"; Tom Gunning's "Weaving a Narrative: Style and Economic Background in Griffith's Biograph Films"; Jacques Aumont's "Griffith—The Frame, the Figure"; and Raymond Bellour's "To Alternate/To Narrate," which analyzes The Lonedale Operator.

Friedberg, Anne. '"A Properly Adjusted Window': Vision and Sanity in D. W. Griffith's 1908-1909 Biograph Films." In her Early Cinema: Space Frame Narrative, edited by Thomas Elaesser and Adam Barker, pp. 326-35.

Examines the concept of sanity in relation to Griffith's Biograph films.

Gish, Lillian, and Pinchot, Ann. The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1969, 388 p.

Reminiscences throughout to Gish's professional and personal relationship with Griffith. Gish, one of the first "movie stars," appeared in her first film in 1912, Griffith's An Unseen Enemy.

Griffith, D. W., and Stern, Seymour. "The Birth of a Nation: A Reply to Peter Noble's Article in the Autumn Sight and Sound." Sight and Sound 16, No. 61 (Spring 1947): 32-5.

Includes a brief letter to the editor of Sight and Sound by Griffith that introduces and endorses Stern's essay, "Griffith Not Anti-Negro," which defends the director and his films against charges of racism. The article that occasioned these replies appeared in the Autumn 1946 issue of Sight and Sound. Stern was Griffith's "authorized biographer"; he published several essays on Griffith in the 1950s.

Gunning, Tom. D. W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film: The Early Years at Biograph. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991, 316 p.

Closely examines the development of Griffith's film-making from 1908 through 1913, focusing on his increasingly intricate editing schemes, his articulation of both on-screen and off-screen space, and the evolution of what Gunning terms the "narrator system": that is, the coordination of the plastic elements of film—e. g. editing, camera placement and movement, performance style—to convey the impression of the existence of a narrator, or a narrating consciousness responsible for the progression of images. Gunning is a leading authority on Griffith and early cinema.

Henderson, Robert M. D. W. Griffith: The Years at Biograph. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1970, 250 p.

Chronological account and descriptive analysis of Griffith's work at the Biograph Company from 1908 to 1913. More recent scholarship and historical research have rendered this work somewhat outdated.

Jacobs, Lewis. "The Decline of D. W. Griffith." In his The Rise of the American Film: A Critical History, pp. 384-94. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1939.

Attributes Griffith's decline in Hollywood, in part, to the director's inability to change with the times.

Jesionowski, Joyce E. Thinking in Pictures: Dramatic Structure in D. W. Griffith's Biograph Films, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987, 212 p.

Close analysis of Griffith's early films, demonstrating the ways in which he developed his method of cinematic narration.

Johnson, William. "Early Griffith: A Wider View." Film Quarterly XXIX, No. 3 (Spring 1976): 2-13.

Reassesses Griffith's importance as a filmmaker based on viewing one hundred of the films he made for the Biograph Company.

Leondopoulos, Jordan. Still the Moving World: "Intolerance," Modernism and "Heart of Darkness." New York: Peter Lang, 1991, 208 p.

Against traditional critical opinion, argues that Intolerance is a work of "modern" art. Leondopoulos compares the film, the historical circumstances in which it was made, and the artistic development of its creator with those of Joseph Conrad and his novella Heart of Darkness (1902), which is generally considered the prototypical modernist narrative.

Merritt, Russell. "Dixon, Griffith, and the Southern Legend: A Cultural Analysis of The Birth of a Nation." Cinema Journal 12, No. 1 (Fall 1972).

Examines the literary sources that were the basis for The Birth of a Nation and discusses the cultural climate into which the film was received.

Murray, Lawrence L. "History at the Movies during the Sesquicentennial: D. W. Griffith's America (1924)." The Historian XLI, No. 3 (May 1979): 450-66.

Discusses the production and immediate critical reception of America.

Pearson, Roberta E. Eloquent Gestures: The Transformation of Performance Style in the Griffith Biograph Films, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992, 184 p.

Examines the ways in which acting technique changed and was refined over the course Griffith's work at the Biograph Company, complementing and enhancing his refinement of cinematic narrative technique.

Quarterly Review of Film Studies: Special Issue on D. W. Griffith 6, No. 1 (Winter 1981): 1-121.

Includes essays by Eileen Bowser, Tom Gunning, Marshall Deutelbaum, Russell Merritt, Nick Browne, Dudley Andrew, James Naremore, Arthur Lennig, and Elaine Mancini.

Silverman, Joan L. "The Birth of a Nation: Prohibition Propaganda." Southern Quarterly 19, No. 3 (Spring-Summer 1981): 23-30.

Argues that Griffith was an exponent of the temperance movement and that many of his films—particularly The Birth of a Nation—can be seen as parables on the evils of drink.

Simmon, Scott. The Films ofD. W. Griffith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 179 p.

Presents an overview of Griffith's life and career, with particular emphasis on his work for the Biograph Company between 1908 and 1913. Simmon attempts to place Griffith within specific social and historical contexts, addressing the racism in his films—particularly The Birth of a Nation—as well as examining his depictions of city life and women's issues.

Staiger, Janet. "The Birth of a Nation: Reconsidering Its Reception." In her Interpreting Films: Films: Studies in the Historical Reception of American Cinema, pp. 139-53. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Describes the audience reception accorded to The Birth of a Nation over the years, beginning with the film's debut in 1915.

Stern, Seymour. "The Cold War Against David Wark Griffith." Films VII, No. 2 (February 1956): 49-59.

Attributes the decline in Griffith's reputation and popularity to a worldwide Communist conspiracy.

Wagenknecht, Edward. The Movies in the Age of Innocence. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962, 280 p.

Personal survey of American silent film, with a chapter devoted Griffith's career.

—, and Slide, Anthony. The Films of D. W. Griffith. New York: Crown Publishers, 1975, 276 p.

Discusses Griffith's major works from Judith of Bethulia (1914) to The Struggle (1931). Wagenknecht and Slide devote their first chapter and an appendix to the films Griffith made for the Biograph Company.

Young, Vernon. "Footnote to a Cinematic Primer." In his On Film: Unpopular Essays on a Popular Art, pp. 15-21. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1972.

Assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Intolerance. Young's essay originally appeared in Southwest Review in 1954 and is included here with a "Post-script" from 1971.

Additional coverage of Griffith's life and career is contained in the following sources published by Gale Research: Contemporary Authors, Vols. 119, 150.