When the Andy Warhol Diaries came out, the publisher intentionally didn’t include an index. The idea was that they wanted people to actually read the book, not just cherry-pick through for the celebrity bits by looking up, say, Mick Jagger or Jerry Hall and going straight to the page (where they’d find out Warhol thought Hall smelled funny). The missing index was deemed such an oversight that the magazine I worked for at the time decided to publish its own index to Warhol’s Diaries, which would fit right into the book. That was my first notion of how big an industry Andy Warhol was. (Besides, it was agreed that Warhol would have been appalled at leaving out a giant list of celebrities.)
Word out of Hollywood is that Oscar-winning angel lookalike Jared Leto will now inhabit Warhol on the big screen. Other notables, including the late David Bowie, have played the part. But Leto will star in and produce a big Warhol biopic based on Victor Bockris‘ book Warhol: The Biography. It’s a great choice, but you have to wonder how Leto decided on his source material, given the cottage industries that Warhol and Warholia have become. Here are 8 more books that Leto might have chosen to get his cinematic Andy on:
Andy Warhol Diaries — written by the man himself, with Pat Hackett editing
Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up — perhaps nobody had as good a vantage of the Warhol scene as Bob Colacello.
The Life and Death of Andy Warhol — another Bockris title.
Andy Warhol: A Biography — the title distinguished from Bockris’ book by an “A” instead of “The”, Wayne Kostenbaum‘s title may more accurately reflect the difficulty of pinning Warhol down — a great read.
POPism: The Warhol Sixties — another shot by editor Pat Hackett of contextualizing Warhol’s words to tell another story. Since Warhol himself was a great “contextualizer” it’s both appropriate homage and colorful collage.
I’ll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews — for Warhol, who founded the still vital Interview magazine, this format gets close to home, with a preface by Kostenbaum. (Did we mention this is a cottage industry?)
Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties — Steven Watson‘s book covers more than just Warhol — but (note to Leto) so will any decent movie. Watson situates Warhol’s Factory in a dangerous cultural moment that defined the American avant-garde.
Warhol — David Bourdon worked with Warhol to create this big beautiful book, which is more directly concerned with the artist’s work, while still bringing to life the life, if demurely.
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