Andrew Shail is Senior Lecturer in Film at Newcastle University, UK. He is the author of The Cinema and the Origins of Literary Modernism (2012), co-author, with Robin Stoate, of Back to the Future (2010), editor of Reading the Cinematograph (2011) and coeditor of Neurology and Modernity (2010), Menstruation: A Cultural History (2005), and the journal Early Popular Visual Culture.

The Origins of the Film Star System includes an impressive bibliography and reproductions of rarely seen publicity photographs and posters … Shail's book stands as a monumental achievement, demonstrating the dynamism of historiography while arguing for the necessity of looking beyond American modes and machinations of the early star system. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

• IntroductionPart I: A New Run at the StoryChapter 1: EuropeChapter 2: North AmericaChapter 3: What Happened Next?Chapter 4: CausalityPart II: Another Run at the StoryChapter 5: The Series CharacterChapter 6: The Series Character and the Star SystemChapter 7: The Ontology of Film StardomConclusionWorks Cited

Andrew Shail is Senior Lecturer in Film at Newcastle University, UK. He is the author of The Cinema and the Origins of Literary Modernism (2012), co-author, with Robin Stoate, of Back to the Future (2010), editor of Reading the Cinematograph (2011) and coeditor of Neurology and Modernity (2010), Menstruation: A Cultural History (2005), and the journal Early Popular Visual Culture.

The Origins of the Film Star System includes an impressive bibliography and reproductions of rarely seen publicity photographs and posters … Shail's book stands as a monumental achievement, demonstrating the dynamism of historiography while arguing for the necessity of looking beyond American modes and machinations of the early star system. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

• IntroductionPart I: A New Run at the StoryChapter 1: EuropeChapter 2: North AmericaChapter 3: What Happened Next?Chapter 4: CausalityPart II: Another Run at the StoryChapter 5: The Series CharacterChapter 6: The Series Character and the Star SystemChapter 7: The Ontology of Film StardomConclusionWorks Cited

Andrew Shail is Senior Lecturer in Film at Newcastle University, UK. He is the author of The Cinema and the Origins of Literary Modernism (2012), co-author, with Robin Stoate, of Back to the Future (2010), editor of Reading the Cinematograph (2011) and coeditor of Neurology and Modernity (2010), Menstruation: A Cultural History (2005), and the journal Early Popular Visual Culture.

The Origins of the Film Star System includes an impressive bibliography and reproductions of rarely seen publicity photographs and posters … Shail's book stands as a monumental achievement, demonstrating the dynamism of historiography while arguing for the necessity of looking beyond American modes and machinations of the early star system. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

• IntroductionPart I: A New Run at the StoryChapter 1: EuropeChapter 2: North AmericaChapter 3: What Happened Next?Chapter 4: CausalityPart II: Another Run at the StoryChapter 5: The Series CharacterChapter 6: The Series Character and the Star SystemChapter 7: The Ontology of Film StardomConclusionWorks Cited