Damned in Paradise: The life of John Barrymore Hardcover – January 1, 1977 by John Kobler 
 
The central mystery of the life of John Barrymore is his epic self-destruction. Barrymore, it would seem, willed, embraced the instruments of his own fall. Endowed with rare physical grace and beauty, surpassing brilliant as both comedian and tragedian, wit, boonfellow, lover, a caricaturist of no mean ability, art collector, scholar, yachtsman, sportsman, he stood for a time at the pinnacle of both his professional and social community. But Barrymore chose to walk a steeply graded downward path - the process had begun even as his fame soared - into debasement and disintegration.
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