Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy, by Imogen Sara Smith, examines the life and career of the most dazzling and enigmatic of the silent clowns, a man who began his career in vaudeville as one of the Three Keatons, joining his parents at age four in their legendarily violent knockabout comedy act.

He rose to the peak of his fame and artistic triumph while still in his twenties, directing and starring in a string of classic silent comedies, only to fall from grace with shattering swiftness in the early 1930s. The coming of sound and the change it brought to the movie industry, combined with Keaton's loss of creative independence, personal troubles and a severe drinking problem almost ended his career, but he persevered through years of eclipse, eventually making a comeback on television in the 1950s and living to see himself acclaimed as one of cinema's immortals.

Delving beneath the familiar facts to uncover Keaton's essential character as an artist, The Persistence of Comedy looks at his life and work on both sides of the camera to create a rich portrait of the face, the body, the personality, and the intelligence that went into his movies, and to interpret just why Keaton continues to fascinate us. A paradox of artist and comic, director and performer, stuntman and subtle actor, icon of the machine age and lyrical portraitist of America’s past with the opposing qualities of irony and sweetness, logic and absurdity, passion and impassiveness, Keaton’s films and character are fused so completely that it is impossible to see where one ends and the other begins.

Exploring controversies and unresolved questions, engaging previous criticism and offering new insights, The Persistence of Comedy pays tribute to Keaton's complexity and enduring relevance. His story inspires a meditation on the serious business of his comedy, the comic stance in life and Keaton’s own singular, bone-deep version of it. Illustrated with rare stills and drawing from a wide range of sources including never-before-uncovered interviews with Keaton's wives, this is an elegant celebration of Buster Keaton for the enthusiast and newcomer.

Paperback, 284 pages.