The Great Charlie, the Biography of the Tramp

“... (Payne) has the gift, as does John Keegan, of using prose to elevate facts, figures, dates and events into the realms of the dramatic.”
—Book Reviewer

Robert Payne has succeeded in a difficult task: he can convey in words the magic of great clowning. His book was justly described, in the Saturday Review of Literature, as ranking “with the best writings on Chaplin in any language.” We learn, incidentally, a lot about Chaplin himself—about his precarious London childhood, his early stage work, his experiences with Fred Karno and Mack Sennett in the earliest screen comedies—but it is ‘Charlie’ who holds the centre of the stage.

Robert Payne analzses all his important appearances on the screen, and also traces his descent back through Dan Leno, Grimaldi, Pierrot and Punch, to the earliest laughter-maker of them all.

Robert Payne (1911-l983) was born in Cornwall, U.K. His father was English, his mother French. He was educated at St. Paul's School in London and at the universities of Liverpool, Capetown in South Africa, Munich and The Sorbonne.

During his lifetime he had over a hundred books published on a wide range of subjects, the widest range of any known author. He was known chiefly for his biographies and history books, among them Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Gandhi, Leonardo, Chaplin, the Christian Centuries, The World of Art. He also wrote novels and poetry.

Librarians loved him; critics raved about him. Orville Prescott of The New York Times referred to him as "a literary phenomenon of astounding versatility and industry."