This is the sort of book that's more interesting as an artifact, for lack of a better word, than for the reading experience it represents. Max Miller was a San Diego journalist during the Depression who became nationally known when he published his collection of vignettes about the San Diego docks entitled [I Cover the Waterfront]. Two movies were based on the book, but neither reportedly bear much relation to Miller's work, other than the title and the setting. Miller spent a very brief period of time (evidently less than two weeks) as a scriptwriter for a Hollywood studio. For the Sake of Shadows is Miller's probably somewhat fictionalized account of that time, published in 1936. There are a few fun vignettes of conversations between screenwriters and between Miller and others who try to give him advice about how to conduct himself in the studio setting. But mostly the book is one long complaint about the crassness and vacuousness of the movie industry and the emptiness of the story Miller has been assigned to work up into a script. The problem is money, of course, the amount the studios insist on making on each picture (locking them into "tried and true" lowest common denominator projects) and the vast sums the scriptwriters are being paid, a week's worth here being equal to a couple of months pay for the reporters doing the real, meaningful, work back home (hooking otherwise talented writers into working well below their capabilities but keeping them from quitting the assembly line). Anyway, Miller makes his point early, and then makes it often. It's quick reading, though. I got through the whole book in one weekend morning and afternoon. But there's not enough detail to make this an truly interesting look at the time and place being described, unfortunately.

As I mentioned above, though, the book is interesting in some way as an artifact, or maybe "curiosity" is a better word. I found a few Miller bios and obituaries online, but none of them mention this book, or even Miller's time in Hollywood. I did find two online references. One a short synopsis on this online bookseller's site. The other is this reference in the googlebooks version of historian Kevin Starr's book, [The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s]. Starr refers to Miller's book as a novel, and puts it within the context of Hollywood screenwriters of the period's "continuing chorus of lament."

As a collectible, this book does have value, to anyone who might care of such matters. My first edition hardcover copy, with dust jacket, seems to worth a minimum of $50 to online sellers. ( )