NIV: The Authorized Biography of David Niven

Book Description

For more than 40 years, David Niven portrayed onscreen the impeccable values of a lost breed of English gentlemen - handsome, elegantly dressed, well-mannered, and utterly charming. Yet behind those twinkling eyes, Niven was often deeply unhappy. From the death of his father when Niven was five, his mother's neglect and the stepfather who loathed him, to the death of his beloved first wife and his volatile marriage to his second wife, tragedy and hardship were never far away. Using new material from Niven's private papers, manuscripts, unpublished stories and correspondence, Lord has written a touching account of one of Hollywood's greatest heroes.

Customer Reviews:

Twee Drivel?.......2007-05-21

After Niven's death the present owner of his chalet, Coco Wyers, went inside the house and surveyed Niven's muurals of matadors in the dank basement of the prefab house. Psychic Coco knew something horrid had happened in the house, but what? "Oh my God," she thought, "what happened here? I felt that something was really not OK." Author Graham Lord has surveyed half a hundred of Niven's friends and associates and come up with the truth, that Niven could be charming and affable, some say generous, but he was a notorious womanizer and serial cheater. He always felt insecure, as most actors do, and he took himself seriously, cherishing the Oscar he had been awarded for his brilliant performance in SEPARATE TABLES.

At the same time, he and his monstrous second wife, Hjordis the drunk, adopted two little girls who grew up, Lord tells us, to be neurotic, quiet, disattached from reality, and deeply unhappy. Well, Hjordis was a world class monster. Betty Bacall is quoted often in NIV (she must have given the world's longest interview for she seems to be on every page) as calling Hjordis "cold." Bacall scoffs at Hjordis' acting ambitions, sniffing that she must have been crazy to think she could make it in Hollywood. Meanwhile Biven was playing with the girls. Naked, he encouraged the little girls, aged 6 and 7, to swing on his outsized member like Tarzan, telling a guest, the painter William Feilding, who witnessed this bizarre scene of fatherhood, "better get them used to a decent size at any early age." He thought more of his [...] than he did his family, that's for sure. At one point he was skiing with Robert Wagner and felt his [...] freezing within a two thin ski ensemble. The two men raced down the slopes and into a bar where Niven plunged his "unit" into a snifter filled with brandy, to warm it up. Another guest went by and goggled, and Niven joked, "I like to give it a drink now and then."

But I felt sorry for those girls. Having that memory in your past must be a tricky thing. No wonder they're ultra reserved and lonely nowadays. They were always trying to please an oversexed dad, and a distant, cold, drunken mother, who was always impossibly gorgeous and never left the house without a full set of makeup. Many friends of Niv's thought Hjordis overdid it with the makeup. I have trouble spelling her name all the way to the end. I feel Lord did a hatchet job on a misunderstood woman whose failing, in the end, was neglecting to protect her two adopted girls from having to play jungle games on the thick vine sprouting from between her husband's legs.

However "Niv" gave good performances in GUNS OF NAVARONE, THE MOON IS BLUE, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, and CASINO ROYALE.

Docked one notch for disrespect to a great poet. Niven took the title of his memoir THE MOON'S A BALLOON from a poem by e.e. cummings. Graham Lord, said to have been the literary editor for the Express for 23 years (!) uses this as a springboard for an attack on cummings' nearly as rabid as his attack on Hjordis. "The title, bewilderingly fey, came from a piece of doggerel by the pretentious e.e. cummings. Why did Niven choose the title? Search me," Lord sneers. Elsewhere he calls the poem "twee drivel," which in England must be the worst insult you can give. To which I respond, Please, Graham Lord, get over yourself! "Bewilderingly fey? YOU'RE the one who just wrote a 370 page ode to David Niven's [...]!"

Pretty Ridiculous.......2006-07-14

The author spends many pages trying to suggest that David Niven's stepfather was actually his biological father. The photo of the stepfather, used as "evidence" looks more like Basil Rathbone that David Niven while a I mistook a photo of David's father in his military uniform to be David Niven before I read the caption. A photo of his older brother also looks very much like David Niven though the author tries to make the case that David Niven looked nothing like his older brother and sister. I guess this is a case of who do you believe, the author or your own lying eyes?

Does this mean the moon's balloon has popped?.......2005-01-15

After reading Niven's two autobiographies in the 70s I wanted to spread the word that he was among the most likable movie stars who ever lived, a civilized sex-maniac who also couldn't help being urbane, loyal, thoughtful, generous, forgiving, bright, witty, tasteful and who therefore was obliged to know and to become eternal friends with just about everybody that mattered during Hollywood's Golden Age.

This new Lord biography says goodbye to most of that, revealing in a good-natured way, as any honor-bound hero-worshipper would, that Niven didn't tell the whole story, neglecting to haave mentioned that his second wife was a second-rate drunk with the kind of bad taste only the red states would brag about, that his fidelities went just so far, that his rigorously high standards of honesty often had to plummet, that his memory of events and headliners from the 1930s and 40s was not unerring, that he could be a bastard just as comortably as the next guy, that he often mistook panache for talent and that charm is not always commensurate with happiness.

Still, Niven, on balance, is as good an example as you'll find of long-gone Hollywood elegance and that must count for something---at least perhaps to the world's few remaining sentimentalists..

If Clark Gable, who could spot a phony a mile off, thought that Niven was worth admiring (a few gaping holes in his character notwithstanding), so can I.

THE LIFE OF A "WODEHOUSE WITH TEARS".......2004-12-30

Laughing on the outside, crying on the inside may well describe the life of British actor David Niven, at least as it's presented in his first authorized biography by Graham Lord. When questioned about his perpetual cheerfulness, Niven is said to have replied that life was so bloody awful he felt obliged to try to make people happier. And, with a host of friends and 71 films (some not very good) he did just that.

Regrettably, the reader concludes "NIV," knowing very little about who the man really was. The author disputes numerous claims made by the actor in his autobiographies, "The Moon's A Balloon" and "Bring On The Empty Horses." Lord does this with great courtesy, saying, "NIV was an hilarious, utterly charming, delightfully engaging fantasist, and fibber. His gloriously funny autobiography, The Moon's a Balloon, is stuffed with errors of fact, anecdotes that are hugely exaggerated and superb stories that are completely untrue."

Thus, the narrative thread of "NIV" is constantly interrupted with corrections, and quotations from other sources. The reader is left wondering who to believe, Niven, Lord, or the person being quoted as having been there and seen or heard such and so?

Lord's account opens with Niven's childhood which was none too happy as it was spent with a disinterested mother and a stepfather whom the actor described as ugly, a martinet. Admittedly a snob, attracted by titles, an unrepentant womanizer, Niven was also a loyal British subject who interrupted his early film career to fight for his country.

Upon his return to Hollywood a contract with Samuel Goldwyn was to advance his career. The mogul and the actor were often at sword's point, perhaps due to the fact that when Goldwyn was paying Niven $3,000 per week, Goldwyn was receiving $15,000 per week when he loaned the actor out. Those years in Hollywood are described as a constant round of parties, drinking, and romantic entanglements. Names are named ad infinitum. It seems that at one point Niven awoke to find himself in bed with the 20-year-old Marilyn Monroe, and another time with the 23-year-old Ava Gardner. Early on, what appeared to be his most serious attachment was with Merle Oberon.

Women, it seems, were the cause of most of his problems and much unhappiness. He fell in love and married a blonde English girl, Primula Rollo (known as Primmie). The couple had two children, David, Jr. and James (called Jamie). Their happiness was extremely short lived. One night while playing a party game at Tyrone and Annabella Power's house, Primmie mistook the cellar door for a closet and fell to the stone floor. She died a few days later at the age of 28.

Niven was inconsolable. Yet, in perhaps one of the more puzzling aspects of his life he sought to assuage his grief by constant womanizing. A friend quotes Niven as saying, "I was insatiable. No woman was safe. It was no disrespect or lack of love for Primmie - I was just trying to get something out of my system that was better out than in. I believe I was very ill in a sexual kind of way." He eventually consulted a psychiatrist and was told that this feeling would pass.

There's no doubt that he was grief stricken. Douglas Fairbanks' wife answered all the letters of condolence as Niven could not bring himself to do it. Nor could he bring himself to return to the house where he might have lived with Primmie, but had the door permanently locked. With the help of friends, most notably Fred Astaire, and Clark Gable who had suffered after Carole Lombard's death, Niven managed to return to work.

The years passed and Niven married again for reasons that in retrospect seem inexplicable. His bride was Hjordis Paulina Genberg, a beautiful Swedish model, who spoke little English, did not seem to grasp the fact that she was becoming a stepmother, and fancied herself a movie star. They had known each other for ten days when they wed. This was a match that seemed doomed from the first I do.. Frustrated in her attempts to become an actress (which Betty Bacall stated was an impossible dream since Hjordis had no talent), she first took to drink and then to having affairs which she flaunted in Niven's face. Theirs was to be a long painful relationship, for them and the two young boys.

The final insult came when Hjordis refused to attend Niven's funeral, but was coerced into going by Prince Rainier. She arrived drunk.

At one time Niven confronted Goldwyn with an ultimatum and the impresario let Niven go, which was almost the end of his career and income. Television was his savior when in 1952 he made two live drama appearances. Then he invested with Charles Boyer, Ida Lupino and Dick Powell to form TV's Four Star Playhouse. More good fortune followed when the crusty Mike Todd cast him in "Around The World In 80 Days."

Eventually, he bought a chalet in Switzerland where he began to paint and collected pictures. He and Hjordis adopted two small girls, one of whom some consider to be Niven's daughter with model, Mona Gunnarson. He also purchased a home in the South of France, which he loved to share with friends such as the Rainiers, the Gregory Pecks, the Roger Moores, Greta Garbo.

Niven made several Italian films and Hjordis's condition worsened as she suffered not only from alcoholism but also depression. She made life miserable for herself and those around her. In fact, it was said that in the 1970s she became so disagreeable that none could be found to say a good word about her.

Niven perhaps knew himself better than anyone else. Despite his Oscar win for Separate Tables in 1959, he once said to William Hurt, "I know exactly what my position is...I'm a second-rate star." Yet, he was a star which is more than most can say.

In 1979 Niven began to show the first signs of motor neurone disease. He fought it, trying to walk or swim everyday, but he was weakening rapidly. He wrote a note to his dear friend, Deborah Kerr, warning her of working too hard, "Dear Old Chum, .....don't stretch the elastic too far, because it snaps, and that is what has happened to me."

David Niven died in 1983. His life was once described as "Wodehouse with tears." Indeed, it was.

- Gail Cooke

Contains a mistake.......2004-11-25

It mentions that Peter O'Toole was in the 1976 film Murder by Death. Actually two famous actors name Peter were in that film but not O'Toole. It was Peter Falk and Peter Sellers that were in Murder by Death, along with Niven.

Niv: The Authorized Biography of David Niven

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Niv: The Authorized Biography of David Niven
Graham Lord
Manufacturer: Orion mass market paperback
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0752859285

Book Description

For more than forty years, Niven portrayed on screen the impeccable values of a lost breed of English gentlemen - handsome, beautifully spoken, elegantly dressed, witty, with perfect manners and utterly charming. Niv, according to his friends, was much the same off-screen. Both men and women were enchanted by his charisma, humour and joie-de-vivre. Yet Niv's life was punctuated by tragedy. From the death of his father when Niven was five, to his mother's neglect and the stepfather he loathed, through to the death of his beloved first wife and his volatile and disturbing second marriage, unhappiness was never far away. Using new material from Niven's private papers, Graham Lord has written a fresh, revealing, funny and poignant portrait of a brave and brilliant man.

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NIV The authorized biography of David Niven
Lord Graham
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UIDL9O

Product Description

A celebration of Roy and Dale's singing cowboy B-western era of Country-Western Music.

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans: It Was Always the Music With Cd (Audio)

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Roy Rogers and Dale Evans: It Was Always the Music With Cd (Audio)
Eric Von Hamersveld
Manufacturer: R&r Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 1740223519

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Excellent

Like BCO/MCO/NCO but for class D-A

Essential and unique

Fills a niche, but not essential

A solid book covering a variety of openings

More Basic Chess Openings
Gabor Kallai
Manufacturer: Everyman Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Basic Chess Openings

Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master

Understanding the Chess Openings

Mastering the Chess Openings: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Modern Chess Openings, Volume 2

Mastering the Chess Openings: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Modern Chess Openings, Volume 1

ASIN: 1857442067

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2006-02-15

This book is excellent choice for those who want to learn more about playing Chess. Though I have yet to read this book I highly recommend it due to the popularity of words in its title. The focus of this book seems to be opening moves, rest assured that this exciting topic will be at least mentioned.

Like BCO/MCO/NCO but for class D-A.......2005-06-29

This book and the first volume (Basic Chess Openings) (...) are an excellent opening book for players between class D and class A. They cover the basic ideas of the openings. In particular they look at all the alternatives that your normal opening book assumes you already know how to refute.

So for example: 1 e4,e5, 2Nf3 Nc6, 3 Bc4. This is a line that everyone knows (the italian) and everyone knows the "correct response" is Bc5. But why?

Kallia first goes through the very natural Nf6 and how the two knights defense makes life very tough for black. He covers in detail the major lines of the two knights
a) Violent central attack (4 d4)
b) Attack on the f7-pawn (4 g5)
and their sub-variations

Having shown why 3 ..Nf6 isn't so good he then looks at 3..Nd4 (and shows how it is refuted by 4Nxd4 (while telling white to avoid the trap of 4Nxe5). Then he looks 3..Be7 and how this ends up too passive. Thus 3..Bc5 seems to be the only move left. From here the 3 main lines of the Italian are discussed, etc... Detailed thorough discussion of the basics for people who are capable of understanding opening theory but just don't know it yet. This book lays the groundwork for you to read an MCO level book. I strongly recommend it for the player with a USCF rating over 1000 and under 2000.

Essential and unique.......2003-03-11

I heartily disagree with the other reviewer who questioned the necessity of having these books (that is, assuming it is necessary to have any chess books at all, which, for the sake of argument, I am assuming that it is). In this age of internet chess, where the VAST majority of games played by people are blitz games, it is more important than ever to get out of the opening in good shape. These two books by Kallai are the absolute best opening books that I have, because not only do they set out variations and plans for all major lines in ALL openings, but they also have odd but frequent second and third moves in all major lines as well. For instance, in the queen's gambit section, you can quickly and easily find the Albin and Chigorin lines dealt with. Far too often, books do not discuss these very common second moves by black. But this book has it all right there. Have you ever seen an opening book explain why white does not play the exchange variation of the queen's gambit immediately on move three? This one does. Kallai tells you succinctly that white wants to wait until black plays Nf6 so that the exchange can be followed up with Bg5. It is all there. I have read Sadler's book on the queen's gambit, and although he has that question-answer dialogue, he does not address many of the practical questions that come up, such as the one above. This Kallai book magically does that. It is the only book that addresses nearly every opening point you can think of. I only have one complaint about these books (I did not play nearly full price, so price is not an issue for me): that is, the bindings are total .... Some Cadogan books were fine, while others fall apart on repeated usage. On my copies, the pages are beginning to fall out. This is inexcusable in a $... book. But, nonetheless, these books are the best. I use them more than Nunn's Chess Openings, more than Fine's Ideas Behind the Chess Openings, and more than all other opening resources that I own.

Fills a niche, but not essential.......2001-01-27

I own this and Kallai's BCO, which is about moves beginning with 1-e4. The title makes them sound they're for beginners, but I think they fall midway between Seirawan's Openings and books like NCO and MCO, and may lean more towards the latter. MBCO is more thorough than Seirawan and just as recent, but has less text and theory. On the other hand, Kallai explains some moves and traps which would be obvious to the expert, and also gives tips on how to play the middlegame. There are no complete games given, just openings.

There's a good deal of information here for a short book. But a price is paid in terms of layout: there are no neat tables as in NCO. Also, I personally dislike the notation, which is figurine algebraic.

This book fills a niche as a pre-NCO/MCO openings reference guide, but is it a big enough niche to justify $40 (you'll need both volumes)? Maybe you're better off buying MCO if you need a thorough reference book (not everyone does), or going elsehwere if you really need to learn how to play openings. I like Kallai's two books, but am not convinced I should have bought them.

A solid book covering a variety of openings.......1999-05-19

Much like 'Basic Chess Openings' by the same author, this book covers many of the more common 1 d4 and other openings. Queens Gambit, Kings Indian, and a couple of others are covered in-depth with many of the variations discussed. Unlike some books, Grandmaster Kallai really tries to describe what you are trying to achieve with each opening/variation. For basic/intermediate level of play, I really recommend this book. The only reason it doesn't get five stars is because some openings are simply glanced at - almost as if it was a rush finish.

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Great way to get started
Excellent book that bridges basic openings books with MCO
Beautiful, crucial!
Excellent content. Atrocious binding.
If you want to KNOW openings......this is the book for you.

Basic Chess Openings
Gabor Kallai
Manufacturer: Everyman Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1857441133

Customer Reviews:

Great way to get started.......2004-08-19

My only problem with the book is the title: it is only about e4 openings, mostly from white's perspective. The companion d4 book is probably necessary to learn how to respond when playing black against d4.

5 stars otherwise; I love the presentation. I started learning openings with Reinfeld's very basic primer, but I think it would be easy to start with this book. I especially value the discussion of middlegame plans after each main variation; this is lacking in many other opening books that focus on variations. A nice balance of details and strategy.

Excellent book that bridges basic openings books with MCO.......2002-11-14

I have a number of general opening books: NCO, Horowitz's Theory and Pratice, Fine"s Ideas Behind Chess Opening's. Kallai's book is far superior to Fine's. It reads easier and provides more details (variations). It also shows the basic traps for both sides. I am surprised that this series of books are not more popular... I turned in my Fine's book and have no regrets.

Beautiful, crucial!.......2002-03-13

The two books by Kallai are quite wonderful. They are a nice modern complement to 500 Master Games of Chess by Tartakower. They are worthy to be joined with that great book. Each opening section cotnains a valuable section about subsequent plans and ideas. If people knew how good these books were, they would quickly be snatched up.

Excellent content. Atrocious binding........1999-08-30

The content of this book is very helpful for beginners or intermediate players (like me) who want to learn the basics of king pawn openings. I would give it 4 or 5 starts for content, but as with many Cadogan published books, the pages will begin to fall out after using the book a few times. This defect is also true of my copy of More Basic Chess Openings by the same author. Poor binding is a common complaint with Cadogan books. E.g. read the Amazon customer reviews of The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal. Apparently Cadogan has been succeeded by, or renamed, Everyman Chess. (The British chess publishing industry appears in great turmoil these days.) Everyman uses a different printer. Binding quality of my one Everyman Chess book, Art of Attack, Vukovic is very good.

If you want to KNOW openings......this is the book for you........1999-06-27

I highly recomend this book. As an intermediate player (1700-1800), I found myself usually getting behind in the beggining against more advanced players. This will teach you just about every opening (along with "More Basic Chess Openings") and ensure your confidence at the start of a game. If you have never picked up a chess book, like myself, this is where you should start.

Discovering Chess Openings: Building Opening Skills from Basic Principles

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Good idea, reasonable execution
clearly explained
Highly recommended for chess enthusiasts regardless of their personal stylistic leanings.
Good book for beginners; subtitle is wrong.

Discovering Chess Openings: Building Opening Skills from Basic Principles
John Emms
Manufacturer: Everyman Chess
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1857444191

Book Description

In Discovering Chess Openings John Emms argues that studying openings doesn't have to be hard work - it can be both enjoyable and enlightening. The key to successful opening play is not simply learning lines off by heart; instead it's the understanding of the basic principles, and here the reader is guided through the vital themes: swift development, central control and king safety.

Customer Reviews:

Good idea, reasonable execution.......2007-03-16

I liked the idea behind this book, and I learned from it, but often the sample developments were too contrived. (One side continued to make questionable moves.) I would certainly recommend checking it out from a library. I would only recommend purchasing it if you plan to buy several books on openings.

clearly explained.......2007-01-27

Sometimes for me the problems with chess books are they will throw out the main line and launch into deep analysis and variation upon variation, so that all too soon I am lost. Or the opposite in some opening books where it is so basic and generic nothing of practical use is realized. I have found this book to be a nice compromise. The writer begins with basic opening traps, then quickly moves to sound guidelines and builds with well explained lines.
I am approx 1400 player (pretty low) and really never studied any opening theory until recently. This book is great for a beginner. If you want deep analysis into specific openings then you probably wouldn't use this book.

Highly recommended for chess enthusiasts regardless of their personal stylistic leanings........2006-12-09

British Grandmaster and opening chess move expert John Emms presents Discovering Chess Openings: Building Opening Skills from Basic Principles, a solid guide written especially for intermediate to advanced chess players seeking to hone their skills and familiarize themselves with the basic principles underscoring the hundreds of different opening options. Chapters cover everything from the simple checkmate-in-four-moves trap to dealing with a blocked center in the board due to pawn play to the advantage of applying gambits to keep one's opponent off-guard and much more. Numerous diagrams and sample games clarify the points and principles in this rock-solid guide sure to enhance the overall strength of the studious reader's game. Highly recommended for chess enthusiasts regardless of their personal stylistic leanings.

Good book for beginners; subtitle is wrong........2006-09-16

The subtitle of this book is not "Building a Repertoire..." as listed by Amazon, but "Building Opening Skills from Basic Principles". It is a book about basic opening principles for beginners. So don't buy it if you are a more advanced player looking for advice on building an opening repertoire. I give it two stars, and it may be worth 5 stars to a beginner or near-beginner.

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Basic Chess Openings
Raymond Edwards
Manufacturer: Routledge Kegan & Paul
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Chess: The Easy Way: A Complete Step-By-Step Illustrated Guide for the Beginner Including the Basic Principles of Opening, Middle, and End Game Strategy

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Chess: The Easy Way: A Complete Step-By-Step Illustrated Guide for the Beginner Including the Basic Principles of Opening, Middle, and End Game Strategy
Reuben Fine
Manufacturer: Cornerstone Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PRTDLA

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