Greta Garbo berätter (Sweden 1990)

Author: Sven Broman
Publisher: Stockholm, Wahlström & Widstrand

The Legend of Garbo (USA 1990)

Author: Peter Haining
Publisher: W. H. Allen & Co., London
More Info: 304 pages

Greta Garbo (Italy 1990)

Author: ??
Publisher: Ciak

Greta Garbo (France 1990)

Author: Henri Agel
Publisher: Librairie Séguier, Paris
More Info: 240 pages

Garbo: Her Story (USA 1990)

Author: Antoni Gronowicz
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York
More Info: 240 pages

Greta Garbo. Ihr Leben  (Germany 1990)

Author: Antoni Gronowicz
Publisher: Knaus, München
Original book: Garbo.Her story, USA 1990
More Info: 445 pages

The Girl who loved Garbo (USA 1990)

Author: Rachel Gallagher
Publisher: Donald I. Fine, New York 1990
More Info: 240 pages

Reviews:

From Publishers Weekly
Like Anne Bancroft's character in the film Garbo Talks (USA 1984), industrial designer Rebeccah Duffy is obsessed by the film star. And like a true romantic heroine, Rebeccah is also bored with her lover. So when Eddie goes off to a new job in California, Rebeccah stays in Manhattan and has an affair with Joel, a classic sleaze. Upon learning that she is pregnant, Rebeccah faces daunting choices: single motherhood, abortion or a dull marriage. None of her dilemmas will enthrall readers. Whenever emotions threaten to engage, Gallagher interrupts with extraneous topics, either alluding to various icons (Emily Dickinson, Frank Lloyd Wright, Stephen Jay Gould, Madonna); analyzing social problems (homelessness, high technology); or discussing Garbo's on- and off-screen appearances. A "merger of hip and yup" (Rebeccah's comment on California), plus "retro" (an oft-used adjective), this first novel adds up to a traditional duo: ho and hum.

From Library Journal
Rebeccah Duffy, industrial designer, is a young woman who can't make up her mind. She loves the good-natured Eddie, whom she met in college, but not enough to commit to him. Though her work is in a man's world, she loves it until her recent promotion is unaccompanied by the same money the boys get. She loves New York until Eddie runs off to California. She loves, at least physically, Joel, the swinging restauranteur who also swings with his wife. She patterns herself after the elusive Garbo, who also had difficulty making commitments. This contemporary novel grew out of a short story and perhaps it should have stayed that way, for though the writing is spritely, both the Garbo image and the self-analysis is wearisome.

Greta Garbo Biografia - Fã Clube Coleção (Brazil 1990)

Author: Carlos Maximiano e Alfredo Sternheim
Publisher: Editora Sampa
More Info: 103 pages

A Divina Garbo (Brazil 1990)

Author: Frederick Sands and Sven Broman
Translation: Marcos Santarrita
Publisher: Editora Nordica
More Info: 200 pages

Greta Garbo: Ein Mythos in Bildern  (Germany 1990)

Author: Frederick Sands and Sven Broman
Publisher: Schirmer/Mosel, München

The Greta Garbo Collection (USA 1990)

Author: Sotheby
Publisher: Sotheby's
More Info: 200 pages, Sotheby auction catalog

Kvinnan som liknade Greta Garbo (Sweden 1990)

Author: Maj Sjöwall and Thomas Ross
Publisher: Norstedt

Conversations with Greta Garbo  (USA 1991)

Author: Sven Broman
Publisher: New York, Viking Penguin
More Info: 304 pages
Orginal version: Greta Garbo berätter, Sweden 1990

Walking with Garbo - Conversations and Recollections  (USA 1991)

Author: Raymond Daum
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, New York
More Info: 224 pages

Greta Garbo: La somnambule
(Femmes dans leur temps)   (France 1991)

Author: Françoise Ducout
Publisher: Paris, Stock
More Info: 373 Pages

Eine Frau wie Greta Garbo (Germany 1991)

Author: Maj Sjöwall and Thomas Ross
Publisher: Rowohlt Tb.
More Info: 223 Pages
Orginal book: Kvinnan som liknade Greta Garbo (Sweden 1990)

De Vrouw die op Greta Garbo (Holland 1991)

Author: Maj Sjöwall and Thomas Ross
Publisher: Leek
Orginal book: Kvinnan som liknade Greta Garbo (Sweden 1990)

GARBO, IL VOLTO DEL CINEMA (Italy 1991)

Author + Publisher: Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Roma
More Info: 71 Pages

Gli occhi di Greta Garbo (Italy 1991)

Author: Manuel Puig
Publisher: Leonardo Editore s.r.l., Milano

More Infos:
Gli occhi di Greta Garbo it is not a biography. The book contains a collection of short-tales about actors and actresses but they are all invented by the author. There is a little story about Garbo going in the hospital to visit Max Ophuls and they talk about the post-phoned production of the planned Garbo comeback film The Duchess of Langelais.

Three Female Myths of the 20th Century: Garbo, Callas, Navratilova (USA 1992)

Author: Iris Bünsch
Publisher: Vantage Pr

The Greta Garbo Murder Case (England 1992)

Author: George Baxt
Publisher: St Martins Pr
More Info: 197 pages

Garbo on Garbo (England 1992)

Author: Sven Broman
Publisher: Blommsbury Publishing, London
More Info: 272 Pages
Orginal book: Greta Garbo berätter, Sweden 1990

Greta Garbo – A Hollywood Portrait (USA 1992)

Author: Marie Cahill
Publisher: Smithmark Publishers
More Info: 111 Pages

Greta Garbo (Romania 1992)

Author: Cezar Petrescu
Publisher: Craiova Editura Crisadi
More Info: 111 Pages

The Most Beautiful Woman on the Screen (Germany 1992)

Author: Michaela Krützen
Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing, Frankfurt am Main;
Berlin; Bern; New York; Paris; Wien
More Info: 149 pages

First Nights (USA 1993)

Author: Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Publisher: Knopf
More Info: 635 pages

Review by Robert Plunket:
I'm not so sure she planned it that way, but Greta Garbo's smartest move was to die with her mystery intact. She was able to do this, of course, because she didn't have any pesky children to go and spoil things. If the latter half of the 20th century has taught us anything, it is that movie stars and First Ladies should be real nice to their children and document it.

This means it is up to the novelists to tell us what Greta Garbo was really like, and I'm glad to report that novelists are infinitely kinder than children. Certainly one of the kindest must be Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, whose novel "First Nights" is about a Swedish actress named Anna Asta, apparently inspired by Garbo. "Inspired" is not really the right word, though; "totally based on, down to the smallest detail" might be a better description.

Everything matches up perfectly: her discovery by a famous mentor-director (Max Lilly, based on Mauritz Stiller), her meteoric rise to stardom in silent pictures, her romance with John Gilbert (Charlie Harrow in the novel), her later life as a recluse. Even the voice is Garbo's -- compare it with that of "Conversations With Greta Garbo," by Sven Broman, or "Walking With Garbo," by Raymond Daum, in which he transcribed messages left on his answering machine by Miss G. -- as the decorator Billy Baldwin always called her. "First Nights" is about Garbo, all right.  Or rather, Garbo and her maid. Ivy Cook, from Green Island in the West Indies, gets equal time. By giving us two heroines, Ms. Schaeffer, whose previous novels include "Buffalo Afternoon," cheerfully shatters our expectations and serves up not her version of a Hollywood novel, but rather a long and stately series of stories -- childhood incidents, relatives good and evil, family tales, lessons learned -- that constitute nothing less than the life histories of two old women, one a legend, one a nobody, isolated yet content in an East Side apartment.

Through the stories, which they relate in a conscious effort to find meaning and pattern in their lives, we come to know both women intimately. Anna Asta is a melancholy yet shrewd peasant trapped in the impossible situation of being the most beautiful woman of her day. Her world is severely limited, but then, so are her emotional needs. She has no delusions of grandeur, nor is she troubled by lack of self-esteem (though she is sensitive about the size of her feet). Her life is that of a person biding her time. Still, she possesses a genuine warmth and nonjudgmental attitude that make one forgive her selfishness.  Ivy comes from a place of strong-willed women and spirits, both good and bad. She got her job because she had no idea who Anna was; her peasant wisdom is at least the equal of her boss's.

Together, as they narrate the stories of their lives, the stories of movies they have seen, the stories of their families, the stories of old fairy tales they remember, they produce the odd sort of symmetry that turns "First Nights" into less of a conventional novel and more of a meditation on many subjects -- the illusion of fame, the weakness of the male sex and the small delights of daily living are just a few of them.  Old age is very democratic. With the wisdom of hindsight we can see that any life, if described in emotional terms, is just as important as any other. Everyone meets her fate, movie star and maid alike.  Still, I wish they had met it a little more quickly. "First Nights" is beautifully and gracefully written, with many of its stories delightful to read, but it lacks dramatic tension. One reason is the character of Anna Asta herself.

The problems faced by the most beautiful woman in the world are not the sort that trouble the average reader, and it is not until the conclusion of the book, in an ending both effective and affecting, that Anna becomes a real human being.  Nevertheless, there are many pleasures to be had along the way. The equally exotic worlds of Green Island and early Hollywood are rendered with skill, and the large supporting cast is lively and endearing. My favorites were the Pinskys, modeled on Louis B. Mayer and his wife.

Saul Pinsky runs the studio (his philosophy of movie making is rooted in the observation that "women want to cry and look at clothes"), but his wife runs him. A shrewd matron who can manipulate her husband into doing anything, Bertha Pinsky brightens "First Nights" the way Eve Arden used to brighten all those 1940's movies -- you can't wait for her to come on again. In the meanwhile there's plenty of time to sneak out for popcorn.