Steve Martin Books In Order

Novels

  1. An Object of Beauty (2010)

Collections

  1. Cruel Shoes (1977)
  2. Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays (1996)
  3. Pure Drivel (1998)
  4. Wasp (1998)
  5. L.A. Story / Roxanne (2000)

Plays

  1. The Jerk (1979)
  2. The Underpants (2002)

Picture Books

  1. The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z (2007)

Novellas

  1. Shopgirl (2000)
  2. The Pleasure of My Company (2003)

Non fiction

  1. Kindly Lent Their Owner (2001)
  2. Born Standing Up (2007)
  3. Rare Bird Alert (2011)
  4. The Ten, Make That Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten (2012)

Novels Book Covers

Collections Book Covers

Plays Book Covers

Picture Books Book Covers

Novellas Book Covers

Non fiction Book Covers

Steve Martin Books Overview

An Object of Beauty

Lacey Yeager is beautiful, captivating, and ambitious enough to take the NYC art world by storm. She begins her career at Sotheby’s, amidst the winks and nods of the fabulously wealthy. But hungry for more and pursued by a whiff of scandal Lacey migrates to edgy Downtown, watching Hirsts and Warhols multiply in value before her eyes. Charming men and women, old and young, rich and even richer, Lacey’s ascendancy seems assured. But when the art world bubble looks set to burst, a secret from her past rears its head, threatening to undermine everything she has worked for.

Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays

Comedy / Casting: 7m, 2f / Interior SceneryThis long running Off Broadway absurdist comedy places Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso in a Parisian cafe in 1904, just before the renowned scientist transformed physics with his theory of relativity and the celebrated painter set the art world afire with cubism. In his first comedy for the stage, the popular actor and screenwriter plays fast and loose with fact, fame and fortune as these two geniuses muse on the century’s achievements and prospects as well as other fanciful topics with infectious dizziness. Bystanders, including Picasso’ agent, the bartender and his mistress, Picasso’s date, an elderly philosopher, Charles Dabernow Schmendimen and an idiot inventor introduce additional flourishes of humor. The final surprise patron to join the merriment at the Lapin Agile is a charismatic dark haired singer time warped in from a later era.’Highly credible and…
very funny. The subject matter is daring…
. You get giggles in plenty and moments of enlightenment…
. The introduction of the final, exquisitely selected visitor from the future is a master stroke.’ N.Y. Post ‘Consistently entertaining.’ N.Y. Daily News ‘Very engaging…
. Martin sends ideas onstage in baggy pants, with a cigar…
. mix ing the sublime with the ridiculous so that they can’t be easily disentangled…
. Very good fun.’ The New York Times

Pure Drivel

Steve Martins talent has always defied definition: a seasoned actor, a razor sharp screenwriter, an acclaimed playwright, and, of course, the ingenious comedian who turned King Tut into a national craze. In this widely praised collection of humourous riffs, Martin shows he is also a master of the written word. From a wildly imaginative meditation on who Lolita would be at age fifty to a send up of the warning labels on medicine bottles, these pieces, many of which first appeared in The New Yorker, hilariously and intelligently skewer the topic at hand. Pure Drivel will have readers crying with laughterand marveling that in addition to all of his many talents, Steve Martin is also a superb writer. Like the fuzzy little puff of marabou on the instep of a coquettes satin bedroom slipper…
Martins book of diminutive, often hilarious essays is…
effortless and silly even as its subtly erudite. Salon Martin is a gorgeous writer capable of being at once melancholy and tart, achingly innocent and astonishingly ironic. He is a master at revealing the surreal poetry in Pure Drivel. Elle

The Underpants

heobald Maske has an unusual problem: his wife’s underpants won’t stay on. One Sunday morning they fall to her ankles right in the middle of town a public scandal! Mortified, Theo swears to keep her at home until she can find some less unruly undies. Amid this chaos he’s trying to rent a room in their flat. The prospective lodgers have some underlying surprises of their own. In The Underpants, Steve Martin brings his comic genius and sophisticated literary style to Carl Sternheim’s classic 1910 farce. His hilarious new version was staged by Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, and opened in March ’02 on Off Broadway to critical acclaim.

The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z

The acclaimed entertainer and bestselling author Steve Martin and the wildly clever New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast team up in a weird, wonderful excursion through the alphabet. The ABCs have never had it so good. Created by two of today’s wittiest, most imaginative minds, The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z! is a sheer delight from A to Z. In twenty six alliterative couplets, Steve Martin conjures up much more than mere apples and zebras. Instead we meet Horace the hare, whose hairdo hides hunchbacks, and Ollie the owl, who owed Owen an oboe. Roz Chast contributes the perfect visual settings for Martin s zany two liners. Her instantly recognizable drawings are packed with humorous touches both broad and subtle. Each rereading and there will be many delivers new delights and discoveries. There, hidden behind Bad Baby Bubbleducks, is a framed picture of a beatnik holding balloons; and the letter C finds clunky Clarissa all clingy and clueless adrift in a landscape cluttered with images ranging from a curiously comfortable clown to Chuck s Chili stand. A smart, laugh inducing introduction to the alphabet for young children, The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z! will also enchant adults with its matchless mix of the sophisticated and the silly.

Shopgirl

One of our country’s most acclaimed and beloved entertainers, Steve Martin has written a novella that is unexpectedly perceptive about relationships and life. Martin is profoundly wise when it comes to the inner workings of the human heart. Mirabelle is the ‘Shopgirl‘ of the title, a young woman, beautiful in a wallflowerish kind of way, who works behind the glove counter at Neiman Marcus ‘selling things that nobody buys anymore…
‘ Slightly lost, slightly off kilter, very shy, Mirabelle charms because of all that she is not: not glamorous, not aggressive, not self aggrandizing. Still there is something about her that is irresistible. Mirabelle captures the attention of Ray Porter, a wealthy businessman almost twice her age. As they tentatively embark on a relationship, they both struggle to decipher the language of love with consequences that are both comic and heartbreaking. Filled with the kind of witty, discerning observations that have brought Steve Martin critical success, Shopgirl is a work of disarming tenderness.

The Pleasure of My Company

Steve Martin’s ‘gifts for subtlety and slyness compare to those of the finest comic novelists’ People and his latest New York Times bestseller a witty and tender tour de force is now in paperback! Shopgirl revealed the novelist in Steve Martin witty, tender, intelligent, and passionate about his craft. And with the successful publication of The Pleasure of My Company, his reputation as one of our most gifted writers has been confirmed. Here, the reader is introduced to Daniel Pecan Cambridge, whose life is full and rich but only within the confines of his Santa Monica apartment. Daniel’s pathological obsession with street curbs and gas station attendants wearing blue hats may prevent him from venturing into the world outside of his window, but not from pursuing romance in his own peculiar way. Meticulously constructed, laugh out loud funny, and brilliantly inventive, Steve Martin’s chronicle of a modern day neurotic yearning to break free has touched more than 200,000 readers. Now in paperback, thousands more can have the pleasure of discovering his most delightful novel to date.

Kindly Lent Their Owner

The private collection of Steve Martin with essays on art and collecting by Steve Martin April 7 September 3, 2001 to Benefit the Steve Martin Charitable Trust Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, Las Vegas

Born Standing Up

In the midseventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of ‘why I did stand up and why I walked away.’ Emmy and Grammy Award winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been awriter. His memoir of his years in stand up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written. At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott’s Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. The dedication to excellence and innovation is formed at an astonishingly early age and never wavers or wanes. Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late sixties, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the seventies. Throughout the text, Martin has placed photographs, many never seen before. Born Standing Up is a superb testament to the sheer tenacity, focus, and daring of one of the greatest and most iconoclastic comedians of all time.

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