Luke Salisbury Books


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Henry Harrison, writer and baseball club owner, believes he has the goods on D. W. Griffith. The author of an influential article in the Atlantic Monthly denouncing Griffith for the racism in Birth of a Nation, Henry has come to Hollywood with his family to interview Griffith and put the final nails in the famed director’s coffin. But Henry finds himself subject to a few . . . distractions. His wife has just told him she’s in love with another man. Henry’s Hollywood tour guide turns out to be an English actor who drives his Model T through Los Angeles dressed like Jesus Christ, the better to seduce women. Lillian Gish, Griffith’s virginal star, may be trying to seduce Henry. And Griffith himself may not be quite the villain that Henry has imagined. In a little over 48 hours, Harry undergoes a personal trial by fire that ends unexpectedly in Babylon, the extraordinary movie set Griffith constructed for the film he believed would be his masterpiece, Intolerance. In Hollywood and Sunset, Luke Salisbury, the author of an acclaimed book on baseball and two previous works of fiction, has captured the madness and allure of Hollywood’s early years.

Praise for Hollywood and Sunset

“This is a rare thing—a truly entertaining novel with soul."
— Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tracy Kidder

"Witty and well-written."
— Online Review of Books

"An A level production from title frame to end credits, Hollywood and Sunset is a work of wit, warmth, and boundless fascincation."
— Thomas Doherty, associate Professor of Film Studies, Brandeis University, and author, Precode Hollywood: Sex, Immorality and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930-1934