With impeccable timing, outrageous humor, irreverent wit, and a superb sense of the ridiculous, Groucho tells the saga of the Marx Brothers: the poverty of their childhood in New York's Upper East Side; the crooked world of small-time vaudeville (where they learned to carry blackjacks); how a pretzel magnate and the graceless dancer of his dreams led to the Marx Brothers' first Broadway hit, "I'll Say She Is!"; how the stock market crash in 1929 proved a godsend for Groucho (even though he lost nearly a quarter of a million dollars); the adventures of the Marx Brothers in Hollywood, the making of their hilarious films, and Groucho's triumphant television series, "You Bet Your Life!" Here is the life and lunatic times of the great eccentric genius, Groucho, a.k.a. Julius Henry Marx.

THE GROUCHO LETTERS enjoys the very best of Groucho's correspondence with the greatest wits and minds of his day. Correspondents include James Thurber, T.S. Eliot, President Harry Truman, Edward R. Murrow, Jerry Lewis, Howard Hughes, Irving Berlin and of course, Chico, Harpo and Gummo. He writes to comics, corporations, children, presidents, and even his daughter's boyfriend. Here is Groucho swapping photos with T. S. Eliot ('I had no idea you were so handsome!'); advising his son on courting a rich dame ('Don't come out bluntly and say, "How much dough have you got?" That wouldn't be the Marxian way'); reacting with utmost composure when informed that he has been made into a verb by James Joyce ('There's no reason why I shouldn't appear in Finnegan's Wake . I'm certainly as bewildered about life as Joyce was'); and crisply declining membership in a Hollywood club ('I don't care to belong to any social organization that will accept me as a member'). No personage is too big, no nuance too small, no subject too far-out for Groucho's spontaneous, hilarious, and ferocious typewriter.

Donated to the Library of Congress in the mid-1960s, Groucho Marx's correspondence was first crafted into this celebration of wit and wisdom in 1967. Reissued today with his original letters and humor intact, "The Groucho Letters" exposes one of the twentieth century's most beloved comedian's private insights into show biz, politics, business, and, of course, his illustrious personal life. Included are Marx's conversations with such noted personalities as E. B. White, Fred Allen, Goodman Ace, Nunnally Johnson, James Thurber, Booth Tarkington, Alistair Cooke, Harry Truman, Irving Berlin, and S. J. Perelman.

To Confidential Magazine

Gentlemen:

If you continue to publish slanderous pieces about me, I shall feel compelled to cancel my subscription.

Sincerely,

Groucho Marx

'The temptation to write about yourself is irresistible, especially when you are prodded into it by a crafty publisher who has slyly baited you into doing it with a miserly advance of fifty dollars and a box of cheap cigars' - Groucho Marx Groucho Marx's autobiography is a rags-to-riches story with a difference. The most outrageous and voluble of the legendary Marx Brothers had a career that stretched from Vaudeville to gameshow, conquering Hollywood on the way. From the triumphs and disasters of a life spent in show business to his unconsummated loves, Groucho's story is told with humour and wit and in Groucho's own unique style. As TS Eliot said of him: 'The mind boggles'.

Here are Groucho's improbable tales of true romance, narrated with his characteristic panache and illustrated with splendid "New Yorker"-esque cartoons.