ALL : Soap Opera History Books

[Sylph]

Could you recommend me some books for all soaps, even those not on air, that cover past storylines, trivia etc.? Something like The Young and the Restless by Barbara Irwin and Mary Cassata.

Thank you!

[JackPeyton]

General Hospital's offical book from around 95 is my fave one. I dont have who wrote it, but its full of all the history.

Days of Our Lives has two great one - A Tour Through Salem and a Family Album.

B&B just released another anniversy book ... i belive if you go to theboldandthebeautiful.com you can order it there. - the last one has a lot of great stuff as well. The Y&R history book is also good.

The best thing you could do is go to amazon.com and search for each soap opera title under books.

The Another World book is my fave.

sorry for not having exact names/who srote them but im at work and my books are at home.

I wish that all soaps would release more book's.

[Dan]

The Complete As the World Turns Family Album

The Complete Another World Family Album

The Complete Guiding Light Family Album

(All by Julie Poll)

Guiding Light: The Anniversary Collection by Christopher Schemmering

The All My Children Scrapbook

The General Hospital Scrapbook

THe One Life to Live Scrapbook

(All By Gary Warner)

The Bold and the Beautiful: Tenth Anniversary Collection

Robert Waldron

The Soap Trivia Book (For Most Soaps)

By Gerard Waggett

Not to mention the 70s and 80s saw many soap storylines turned into a book series. I know there are some from AMC, Dark Shadows, Search for Tomorrow, GL, etc.

[DevotedToAMC]

I like the All My Children scrapbook

[Scotty]

One Life to Live: 30 Years of Memories, by Gary Warner. It covers OLTL storylines from the beginning (1968) up through 1998, when the book was published. I only hope someone will come out with a new book next year for OLTL's 40 anniversary.

[EricMontreal22]

The individual scrapbooks that every soap currently on ahs are good but I wish they had breakdowns of who wrote what year etc.

As for in general the two books I go back and back to are both titled Soap Opera Encyclopedia

The best is by Christopher Schemering's SOap Opera Encyclopedia. It's just a FANTASTIC book for soaps past and present with backstage and storyline breakdowns, cast lists, ratings lists, awards, etc etc. It's ESSENTIAL. Sadly Schemering commited suicide in the late 80s so the last edition is from 1987 (it's the second edition). Get it not the 1984 edition though there are only some changes. Still even though it's 20 year sold it's essential I think. The man writes so well and crams so much info into it.

I got my copy of the first edition for a buck at a used bookstore here and then later got the new edition from Amazon marketplace http://www.amazon.com/Soap-Opera-Encyclope...2135&sr=1-2 is the right editiona nd they have copies as cheap as 2 bucks (the quality, as it's largely jsut text isn't too important IMHO).

Schemering also did a GREAT Guiding Light 50th Anniversary book aroudn the same time which you can find on amazon as well.

The second Soap Encyclopedia aknowledged using Schemering as a template. It's not nearly as well written however but it does have very detailed info and is more up to date, going to 1997. It was by Gerard J Waggett who did the GH and AMC trivia books in the mid 90s (whicha re fun but not essential) and apparantly is doing a ONe Life to Live trivia book in 2008 (!) I got my copy for 4 bucks 3 or so years ago from amazon marketplace but now the cheapest one they have liste dis 48 bucks (!!!) but you may be able to find it locally. (One interesting difference is Schemering's book covered primetime serials too, Waggert's doesn't)

I have a number of really interesting books on soaps from the 70s--the first period when people wrote a lot about them ( LA Guardia wrote several) that often pop up in used stores but the only other one I find essential is by novelist/future TV show writer (and originallyt he planned co creator of Loving!--lotsa gossip on that) Dan Wakefield and his awesome 1976 book All Her Children about AMC in the early days, how he became against his prejudice a huge fan and about Agnes Nixon. It's just simply a [!@#$%^&*] fantastic read.

I sorta collect soap books but these top my list. One mor einteresting one is the gorgeously photographed coffee table book World's Without End. it's a series of essays by different people on different aspects of soaps including radio soaps, soaps aroudn the world, sexuality in soaps etc--and was done a as a companion to a late 90s Museum of TV and Radio traveling exhibition on soaps

[EricMontreal22]

Amazon mentions Waggert wqho has done trivia books for AMC, GH, Y&R, Another World etc is finally doing one for OLTL's 40th this Sumer--you can pre order it for 12

[jcar03]

DAYS has another one that came out way back in 1995 celebrating 30 years on the air. I love it. Yearly recaps, pictures, cast interviews and a cast list. I wish they had made an updated one for 40 years.

[Scotty]

Cool! Thanks for info., I had no idea that they were actually doing a new book for OLTL's 40 anniversary. I'll have to be sure and get that. I may even write a little report on it sometime in the next day or two. Thanks again!

[TC]

When I was working myself through school back in the late 80's, early 90's, at a library (The one on Atwater which EricMontreal probably knows), there was a great book from the 70's about all soaps. I took it home so many times it eventually ended up with "the bindery ladies".

[EricMontreal22]

Hahaha I lived a while on Atwater and know exactly the one you mean I think

Ya Scotty tho the trivia books are minor (but fun) I'm glad they are doing one for OLTL and markign its 40th anniversary even if I'd prefer a real updating of the coffee table books that rarely happens (and do we really want to remember the pasty ten years on that show anyway?

E

[JaneDigby]

Soap World, by Robert LaGuardia (Complete plot recaps for every soap that had aired up to 1984. An amazing book, very interesting take on Gloria Monty's impact on the genre. Essential reading.)

Wonderful World of TV Soaps by Robert LaGuardia (From 1978 or so. Recaps mostly via photographs. I think this was only available in paperback.)

[YRBB]

The Y&R Silver Edition is no longer available through Amazon, neither is the B&B 10th anniversary edition....

[sheilaforever]

eBay!

I got both of them there - for very little money and in great shape. At the same I won the B&B book and then gave it to a friend making some cash for free.

[heatherwebber]

As mentioned a couple times above, LaGuardia's Soap World is essential despite missing all kinds of more recent stuff. The Schemering, which was updated at least one major time, has a lot of additional material but much shorter entries for shows.

The LaGuardia has extensive plot summaries for the histories of the major shows up to that point which is more than pretty much any other book I've come across.

There were a couple of 70s & 80s books which had some summaries for a few shows but nothing like this one.