Books, CDs, Cassettes, Magazines

by (about) Spalding Gray, (sort of) alphabetized by Title, at least to start with...

NOTE: please use our direct links to abebooks.com and abebooks.co.uk for book orders of anything rare or out of print. See Affiliate page. Also, searches on Ebay should be placed through our site link to Ebay. Same with Amazon. See Affiliates page.

All these links are available on the Affiliates page.

Special Note:

In Search of the Monkey Girl (rare) now available as free download, courtesy of the Estate and www.sideshowworld.com and John Robinson. Go to: www.sideshowworld.com/thstgod-RL-SG-SearchMonkeyGirl.html
(all copyrights are maintained by Estate of Spalding Gray and Randal Levenson)

For pictures in book, see http://www.randallevenson.com/monkeygirl.html

First Words - Audio Literature, 1996
- courtesy of Mary Colurso, Music Writer:
"First Words" is an anthology of spoken-word performances put out by Gang of Seven. There's an excerpt on it from "Monster in a Box" -- the part about an earthquake hitting the house.
Will Ackerman, who founded the Windham Hill label, had the idea spoken word would be the next big thing, as popular as New Age music. He was wrong, but I've always loved the form. Gang of Seven, the label Ackerman founded, didn't last.
- released as Cassette and CD
- CD is rare, cassette is very rare
Gray's Anatomy - Paperback - 1993
- very funny tour of alternative medicine when Spalding develops eye problems - also made into film - prophetic in a way, given Spalding's car accident year's later. See also hardback edition by Running Press Books
High & Low / Modern Art and Popular Culture / Six Evenings of New York: Museum of Modern Art / MOMA, 1990. Performance
Goldberg, RoseLee; with Two-page Statements from Laurie Anderson, Eric Bogosian, Bongwater (Ann Magnuson & Kramer); David Cale; Brian Eno; Spalding Gray. Illustrated by PhotographsThroughout
Homespun: Tales From America's Favorite Storytellers(First Edition)
New York: Crown, 1988. Hardcover
Smith, Jimmy Neil (editor), Spalding Gray, Ray Hicks, Elizabeth Ellis, Jackie Torrence, etc. (contributors)
Impossible Vacation - 1992 - what can i say, except a must for Spalding fans, and readily available. Of the about 500 books by Spalding at abebooks.com (use our affiliate page please), just under half are copies of Vacation.
I read this years ago and didn't really think too much about it but now it still remains an influential book to me. Orginal version was 800 pages, only first half was published.
Original version held by Estate. Wouldn't it be great if second half was published - Brewster gets to Bali!
It's a Slippery Slope - 1997- Hardcover and trade
- despite my fear of skiing (couldn't find an actual phobia, but fear of snow is chionophobia, and skiophobia or sciophobia is fear of shadows), the story of Spalding making big changes is wonderfully paralleled to that thing called skiing...
The Journals of Spalding Gray
Written by Spalding Gray
Edited by Kathie Russo and Nell Casey
Formats: eBook, 320 pages ; Hardcover, 336 pages Publisher: Knopf
On Sale: October 18, 2011
Price: $28.95 US
ISBN: 978-0-307-70052-0 (0-307-70052-6)
Pre-Order using the Affiliates link on this site
- either Random House or Amazon affiliates
Monster in a Box - 1992 - Paperback & Hardcover
the only time I've seen Spalding live, in Vancouver - based on writing Impossible Vacation, a superb monologue...
Morning, Noon and Night - 1999 - Paperback & Hardcover
- this is really quintessential Gray although the reaction of readers to the truth of Spalding's maturity was I'd say mixed. I myself knew this was a great book when I realized I no longer had to bicycle around Sag Harbor...
The Nothing Issue (Benzene Magazine), 1985 - Spalding Gray, Bern Porter, Ray Johnson, John Cage, Dick Higgins, Arakawa & Madeline Gins - Benzene Editions, 1985.
The Nothing Issue of Benzene Magazine is a collection of art and writing by about 45 authors. Very Rare.
Rituals (Benzene Magazine) #5/6 Spring/Summer 1982 - contains an excerpt from Fear of Fear (novel in progress) - novel was never published. Was it witten or more completed??? All Benzene issues are Very Rare.
Very strange story - all I can say is that it is about obsessions and masterbatory fantasies.
Orchards - Mamet, David; Guare, John; Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich; Gray, Spalding; Wasserstein, Wendy.
Orchards - I finally got a new copy
The idea being that authors take a Chekhov story, and turn it into a play... Not Spalding, he just wrote a short monologue - EXCELLENT
In Search of the Monkey Girl by Randall Levenson and Spalding Gray
- a must for anyone obsessed with circus freaks as I am - Spalding travels with Levenson as he photographs circus freaks - the treatment is very pro freak much as Todd Browning's film Freaks...
- this book is very rare and prices of $100 and more are common - I found one using the abebooks.com book want search tool - I got it in fairly good shape for 5 bucks!

Now available as free download, courtesy of the Estate and www.sideshowworld.com (John Robinson). Go to: www.sideshowworld.com/thstgod-RL-SG-SearchMonkeyGirl.html (all copyrights are maintained by Estate of Spalding Gray and Randal Levenson)
For pictures in book, see http://www.randallevenson.com/monkeygirl.html
Seven Scenes from a Family Album - Spalding Gray, 1981
- very rare, very expensive - I can only find one copy available for U.S. 450 - one more copy on abebooks.com now for $275
- Here is a review from the Village Voice, V. XXVII,No.5,Jan. 27 - Feb. 7th, 1982, p.42

"In Spalding Gray's Seven Scenes from a Family Album, unrestrained impulses of mind and body pierce the banal surface of suburbia to reveal the complex underside of a middle class family.

The seven fantasies glance atthe lives of Ted, Jean and their son Jessie. The emphasis on sex, death and family brings to mind Gray's autobiographical performance pieces, but this thematic continuity is less significant than the calm, artistic authority that Gray's experience in theatre lends to his fiction. Seven Scenes offers a mature command of narration, rhythm and imagery. Narrative voices and points of view shift easily among the characters. Poetry merges with prose. Dialogue which intentionally echoes cliches gives way to language bluntly descriptive of physical detail or lyrical with a nostalgia for lost hope and throughout, Gray's critical distance from the character's deadened lives is balanced by a sympathy of a substance of emotions. That he maintains this balance while contolling such a variety of styles and techniques, and does so with no pretentiousness, no self-conscious technical tricks for their own sakes, makes Seven Scenes extremely impressive."

by Caryn James - to be removed upon copyright request

(I finally got a copy of this on Ebay for $100, mint - very strange book, takes multiple readings...jb)
Sex and Death To the Age 14 - 1986
- what can I say...one of the finest of all my Spalding books - it was my introduction to Spalding - I had previously been a Gray virgin - then i saw him on Letterman (1982) when he was plugging this book - I read it and my life has never been the same - now I didn't say better... and now i'm a Spud head... a Spuddy!
Swimming to Cambodia - 1985 - so this was published before Sex and Death? Strange.
- the book/monologue that Spalding wrote about the film (The Killing Fields) that he was in, that was made into a film itself that made Spalding sort of famous. somewhere between a cult hero and a hollywood celebrity... if you only read one book by Mr. Gray, read this (and Sex and Death...)
- here is a good review
TRICYCLE: THE BUDDHIST REVIEW FALL - 1991 - The Dalai Lama Interviewed by Spalding Gray
- an interview that has been published in many versions
this perhaps in the most complete version
The Mystery of Doubt
Spalding Gray interviewed by Francine Prose
from tricycle.com (free to join for log in)
ok, so it's out of alphabetical order!
The Grit Cookbook
- a famous veg. restaurant in Athens, Georgia. Spalding contributed a recipe for the one thing he looked for every Thursday night. www.thegrit.com to order.
There was another monologue about to be performed - reportedly about the accident that happened in Ireland - called Black Spot (is this in written form or taped anywhere???) NOTE THAT Life Interrupted is a new title for Black Spot
Life Interrupted - the last monologue - about Spalding's accident/road of recovery - first performed 2003 (?) - now available on amazon.com

(also available in Fall 2006, on CD as narrated by Sam Shepard) also a version (excerpts) by Spalding on NPR.
Blue Man Group - Complex - CD
- Track 5, Your Attention, Quote: "words on the right" - very difficult to distinquish
- CD is Excellent
Breaking the Rules - Wooster Group - by David Savran - Theatre Communications Group, NYC 1988
- Book about The Wooster Group includes lots of info about Spalding
- Highly recommended
- To order, please use our link to abebooks.com, or abebooks.co.uk as found on the sidebar under Affiliates.
State of the Union - CD - 1993, Muworks Records, NYC
- short exerpts from many artists with the proceeds going to Nation Coalition of Censorship
- Spalding's piece is called Address
Nerve:The First Ten Years - 2007
- Includes Essay by Spalding called 'The Late Blooming of a Monogamist'
See www.nerve.com (Adult Site) "We created Nerve.com way back in 1997 because we wanted to read a smart magazine about sex"
One On One: TheBest Mens's Monologues for the 21st Century
- Spalding has monologue 'The Anniversary' - also in Life Interrupted
High Performance #29 Vol. VIII, No. 1, 1985
Contents unknown
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/pajj.2008.30.1.1
Spalding Gray's Last Interview. Theresa Smalec
PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art Jan 2008, Vol. 30, No. 1 Jan
2008, (PAJ 88): 1–14 (EXCELLENT) (not generally available in hardcopy).
It is reported that Spalding's literary agent Suzanne Gluck published a monologue of Spalding's (unknown which one it was...please tell me)...in a Brown University literary mag.
- some details here
A celebration of flies by Spalding Gray - Harper's Magazine
- this one pisses me off as one can only view readable copy by being subscriber to Harper's ($16.97 for 12 months). So if anyone can figure out how to bypass this, please let me know!
The Undiscovered Chekhov Forty Three New Stories, translated by Peter Constantine, Forward by Spalding Gray. (Thanks to super Spuddy Dan McCole for this tip).
Remember Me When I'm Gone by Larry King
It is a collection of epithaphs by famous people. Spalding had written the following: (quote will be removed by request of publisher):
"Spalding Gray was born in 1941 in Providence, Road Island. He was a loving and devoted father to his two sons, Forrest and Theo, and his stepdaughter, Marissa Maier. He loved and cherished his wife, Kathleen Russo. Most of all, Spalding will be remembered for his autobiographical monologues at which he would sit on stage at a table with a glass of water and talk for more than an hour and a half, telling true stories from his life. He was like a talking everyman because his life, although a little eccentric, was not that different from all of ours. Only he would be able to capture in such vivid detail, and highlight it with such humor, that it caused audiences both to laugh and relate. Spalding Gray was an American original and the "Talking Man" will be dearly missed."
My First Car , James Lecesne, and Marion Long
- Spalding is interviewed for this book – 2 pages, not previously published in GQ, similar but not the same as monologue in Sex and Death
The Face, No. 83, March 1987
- Memory Man – short, but good article/interview
Alive, the New York Performance Magazine, Nov./Dec. 1982
- Cover Article ‘Spalding Gray: Talk of the Downtown’
- Very early interview with Spalding talking about the earliest monologues such as Rumstick Road
GQ, April 1988
- Radio Daze – one page story by Spalding (with wonderful pic)
GQ, Oct, 2003
- ‘Man Overboard’ – interview with Spalding, Kathie, great pics
Show People, Fall 2002, Premiere Issue
- interview of Billy Joel by Spalding
A Simple Life, Edited by Tom Morgan, 2001
- articles on the Dalai Lama, including Complete interview of Dalai Lama by Spalding
Life Changing Stories of Coming of Age
- Edited by Thomas Dyja
- Excerpt from SAD (Sex and Death)
About "Three Places in Rhode Island" by Spalding Gray
The Drama Review: TDR, Vol. 23, No. 1, Autoperformance Issue (Mar., 1979), pp. 31-42, MIT Press
Please take note of the strict copyright/use rules (please write me if unable to download)
Thanks to fan Ryan Hanley, MFA Theatre for the excellent links
Excerpts from "A Personal History of the American Theatre" by Spalding Gray
Performing Arts Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1984), pp. 36-50
Published by: The MIT Press
This appears to be a longer version than the PBS version, but shorter than actual monologue
Please take note of the strict copyright/use rules
Thanks to fan Ryan Hanley, MFA Theatre for the excellent links
Clean & Sober & Profoundly Disturbed by Spalding Gray (unavailable on the web)
GQ - June, 1993
I include this as it reads as a monologue or part of a monologue. Also hilarious!
As fan Scott writes: "Not only is it a really funny article, but it’s a fairly clear example of the way he developed his monologues—a lot of material went in, and then ended up on the cutting room floor, or in other projects."
My Art in Life
Interviewing Spalding Gray
by Richard Schechner
- In February 1999, Spalding Gray took part in the “Tuesday Night Forum Series”
of lectures and performances sponsored by the Performance Studies Department
of the Tisch School of the Arts/NYU.
The format of the program paralleled one of Gray’s own performances, Interviewing the Audience (1980),
except in this case, Gray was interviewed—first by Richard Schechner
and then by members of the audience.
Rolling Stone with Jon Bon Jovi on cover
Reported that an article is by Spalding Gray - unknown date and content
The Best of the Best American Hilarity: The Most amusing Cartoons, Columns, and Essays from The Pun Era Newspaper
- unclear as to what Spalding's story is
Reflections: The Taper at Twenty
- unclear as to what Spalding's story is - 'CENTER THEATRE GROUP/MARK TAPER FORUM, 1987.
Published in celebration of the theatre in Los Angeles'.

Books/Mags About Spalding

Note that this list is by no means complete though it is extensive. This in combination with the excellent bibliography from Spalding Gray's America by Demastes is much more complete.

From my friend Jordan Young -
My ebook has been retitled SPALDING GRAY AND SOLO PERFORMANCE: HOW ONE ACTOR REVOLUTIONIZED AN ART FORM. A second ebook, AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND SOLO PERFORMANCE: THE LEGACY OF SPALDING GRAY, which discusses the work of Julia Sweeney,Paul Linke, Shane McCabe and director Mark W. Travis--all influenced by Gray. I expect both to be available on Amazon.com June 5, at $2.99 each. The work of two additional Gray-influenced monologuists is discussed in THEATRE vs. JOURNALISM: ANNA DEAVERE SMITH, MIKE DAISEY & OTHERS. Release date TBA.
All three are chapters from my book, ACTING SOLO: THE ART AND CRAFT OF SOLO PERFORMANCE, which will be published this fall in digital and paperback versions--with a foreword by Obie Award-winning solo artist Charlayne Woodard.
Spalding Gray’s Tortured Soul - NYT Excepts from Journals of Spalding Gray (web page)
- a version of this article appeared in print on October 9, 2011, on page MM24 of the Sunday Magazine
with the headline: The Dark Prince Of Downtown.
Spalding Gray's America by William Demastes
Link to Chapter 5 (pdf) - (strictly copyrighted)
Courtesy of: Hal Leonard Performing Arts Publishing Group
19 W. 21st Street, suite 201
New York, NY 10010
Rapportage, the Lancaster Literary Guild Literary Journal
Spalding Gray’s Life and Legacy:The Monologue of the Everyman
- 2011 by Ben Asher - Copyright © 2011 by Rapportage
Caught In The Act, New York Actors Face to Face - Photograghs by Susan Schater, Interviews by Don Shewey, 1987. I have no information on the interview. Picture of Spalding will eventually be in Pictures on this site courtesy of Susan Schater www.susanshacter.com
And Everything Is Going Fine by Kristin McCracken (Tribecafilm.com)
Interview with Kathie Russo 12/10 - EXCELLENT
LIVES; Desperately Still Seeking Spalding (by Hugo Perez - man who saw Spalding on Ferry 10/01/04) - EXCELLENT
Breaking the Rules: the Wooster Group by David Savaran
Review/Interview by David Cote, NY Theatre Critic
EXCELLENT article on Spalding re accident etc.
www.nymag.com/nymetro/news/features/n_9787/index2.html
Link to NPR audio and video - EXCELLENT selection
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1781976
Two Articles in GQ (Gentleman's Quarterly), April 1988
a) Radio Daze – one page story by Spalding (with wonderful pic) - GQ, Oct, 2003
b) Man Overboard – interview with Spalding, Kathie with FANTASTIC pictures
- EXCELLENT ARTICLE (note that title chosen/published before Spalding's passing)
http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2004/03/11/spalding_gray/index.html (orginally published in local Oregon newspaper, later in anthology of travel stories - don't remember title - and briefly mentioned at NYC Memorial) "A chance meeting on a nude beach with my literary hero, Spalding Gray, inspired me to write. I was never able to thank him"
By Suz Redfearn
Getting Away With It by Steven Soderbergh: "a mix of a journal that Soderbergh was writing as he was looking for distribution for his experimental film, Shizopolis, and Spalding Gray’s entertaining monologue film, Gray’s Anatomy. It gives us insight into his producing, writing as a script doctor, as well as writing his own screenplays, as well as his ventures into getting other scripts and films into production" (quote is from http://patrickmccoy.typepad.com/lost_in_translation/2007/12/getting-away-wi.html)
Performances Studies: an Introduction by Richard Schechner - I know it mentions Spalding but how much? I have no idea. Anyone know? Please tell me. (also translated into Polish)
Spalding Gray by Karry Krammer - BOMB Magazine, BOMB 17, Fall 1986 - EXCELLENT early inteview with Spalding. Full of obscure detail. http://www.bombsite.com/articles/833
Drinking, Smoking and Screwing : Great Writers on Good Times ed. by Sara Nickles - excerpt from 'College Girls' in Sex and Death...by Spalding
Porn and Being Poor, Then and Now: Bette Gordon Interview, Tribeca 2009
- Spalding had voice part on obscene phone call in the 1984 film Variety (Produced by Renee Shafransky, Directed by Bette Gordon). Recently restored due to being first film on porn (no porn in film) from a feminist perspective. Low budget, perplexing film.
Within Within (Windsor, Ontario: Black Moss Press, 2008) by Peter Levitt
- a review of the book which includes poem Frozen House about Spalding's passing. Excellent poetry. www.peterlevitt.com - Poem is on Poetry page on this site (spaldinggray.com)
In the Hamptons: My Fifty Years with Farmers, Fishermen, Artists, and Celebrities by Dan Rattiner
- brief section talking to Spalding about failed nuclear power protest. Not particularly complimentary to Spalding, first for Spalding's lack of time for interview, second post accident Spalding.
"Spalding Never Got Normal" : Jonathan Demme on SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA by Karina Longworth
- similar to what David Sedaris told me - that when he met Spalding, he realized that they were both always working on a story.
In Praise of the Weekday Afternoon Lost to Drinking by Mark Warren (Esquire)
- brief yet perhaps significant mention of Spalding.
Jeffrey Goldman, “Dancing with the Audience: A Conversation with Spalding Gray, Actor, Writer, Monologist, and Connoiseur of Neuroses” Dramatics 63 (November 1991), pp 24 – 29
Death Becomes Them by Alix Strauss - despite the morbid subject matter about celeb suicides, interviews with the author show a sympathetic attitude.
Excellent article by the author, Alix Strauss on the book.
Weekends at Bellevue by Julie Holland, M.D.
- she knew Spalding/sounds like a great book
Interview on NPR and Excerpt
Contemporary Literary Criticism, Ed. Marowski,D et Pollock, S, Gale Research Inc., 1988 - p.145-153
– literary articles about the works of Spalding
Theatre Week, Dec.20, 1993. - Review of Gray’s Anatomy, stage show at Lincoln Center
Theatre Week - Dec. 3, 1990 - Spalding Gray's Monster Comes Out of It's Box
Playboy, Nov. 1968
- One pic with Spalding in background
NEW YORK, Feb.2, 2004
- Cover Article, ‘Searching for Spalding’
Extreme Exposure An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century - Edited by Jo Bonney
PLAYS & players
- February 1986
Monologues in the making by Tish Dace
HIGH PERFORMANCE # 34, Volume 9, # 2, 1986
The New York Times Magazine, May 17, 1992, Section 6
-Front Cover, Gray's Anatomy
SOMA - Fall 1993 Volume 24 issue
Appears to contain article about Spalding though contents are unknown (please let me know...)
American Film Magazine - 5/87 - Ishtar / Spalding Gray / Beatty
- contents unknown
The Monster Inside 1941-2004 by Andrew Oldham with excellent interview of Spalding by Jeanne Carstensen
Nuts in Bali - interview by Ameena Meer
- excellent - about Imposible Vacation (the complete version) and the film King of the Hill
Frieze Magazine, Issue 9, March-April 1993
- thanks to Giles Bailey for the link
SWIMMING TO NOWHERE: THE ATTEMPTED SUICIDES OF SPALDING GRAY. by Erik Sofge
- interesting pics of sag habor bridge, Staten Island Ferry- narrative may not be accurate
Interview with Spalding by Doug Ordunio, recorded for Delta Airlines, 1990, in 3 parts on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRTLMs9kteU&feature=related
What It Feels Like...to Find Spalding Gray's Body by Robin Snead
in Esquire, July 16, 2007 (warning - sad,graphic content)...
This American Life (exerpt by Spalding from Slippery Slope)
Out of Character: Rants, Raves, and Monologues from Today's Top Performance Artists by Mark Russell
DRAMATICS Magazine November 1991. Interview with Spalding Gray on the art of storytelling.
The Featherdale Press, Issue 4, Tribute to Spalding Gray by Richard Taylor
Jeffrey Goldman, “Dancing with the Audience: A Conversation with Spalding Gray,
Actor, Writer, Monologist, and Connoiseur of Neuroses,” Dramatics 63 (November 1991), pp 24 – 29
Excerpt
The Spalding Gray Experience in the villagevoice.com
- excellent interviews with Soderbergh, Demme and Broomfield
Print Ad for Rockport - in 2000 - in at least the New Yorker (reportedly)
Some details from Rockport/NYT here
Spalding Gray: The Power of a Dandelion by Julie Hersh
Her book is called Struck By Living: From Depression to Hope
- both article and book are highly recommended
Monthly Film Bulletin, December 1986
- Cover picture of Spalding in True Stories
Writers Dreaming - articles by many writers,
- contents by Spalding unknown, tends to be rare

Books that Spalding liked:

Open Secrets: a Western Guide to Tibetan Buddhism by Walt Anderson
Psychotherapy East and West by Alan Watts (mentioned in And Everything is Going Fine)
The Undiscovered Chekhov Forty Three New Stories, translated by Peter Constantine, Forward by Spalding Gray. (Thanks to super Spuddy Dan McCole for this tip).
A Glorious Accident: Understanding Our Place in the Cosmic Puzzle
Interviews by Wim Kayzer of Oliver Sacks, Daniel C. Dennett, Stephen Jay Gould, Rupert Sheldrake,
Freeman Dyson, and Stephen Toulmin (mentioned in And Everything is Going Fine)
The Journals of John Cheever (mentioned by Kathie Russo in interview with NYT)
"It was on his nightstand for many years"

On MY Most Wanted List:

High & Low / Modern Art and Popular Culture / Six Evenings of New York: Museum of Modern Art/ MOMA, 1990.
The Nothing Issue- Benzene- Spalding Gray, Bern Porter, Ray Johnson, John Cage, Dick Higgins, Arakawa & Madeline Gins - Benzene Editions, 1985.
LIFE INTERRUPTED - A WORK IN PROGRESS - PROGRAMME - 2003
$210 (!!!) at abebooks.com
Rolling Stone with Jon Bon Jovi on cover
Reported that an article is by Spalding Gray - unknown date and content

SPALDING GRAY BOOK REVIEWS/COMMENTS/ADDITIONS
Submit yours!!!