The private Cary Grant

The Private Cary Grant is a 1983 book about Cary Grant, catalogued under William Currie McIntosh and published by Sidgwick and Jackson. The Google Books record adds a second author, William Weaver, and its description says the volume is less a biography than a set of reminiscences by two men. According to that description, Grant hired Weaver as a secretary and valet, and Weaver also worked as chauffeur, part-time bodyguard, travel agent and fixer of problems. McIntosh began as a business associate, then became a friend who often traveled with Grant.

The same description states that the book is not a “serious” one, which is the first thing a reader looking for a formal life should know. Of the 14 other books about Grant listed in the same catalog, only Lionel Godfrey’s Cary Grant (1981) is older. Richard Schickel’s Cary Grant: a celebration and Geoffrey Wansell’s Cary Grant, haunted idol carry the same 1983 date.

For fans

What the book records say

The description on the Google Books record supplies the only account of the contents. It praises the book as “the perfect mix” of “revelatory character details” about Cary Grant and “gossipy good fun” about his lady friends. It also compares Weaver’s job to what is now known as a personal assistant.

The records differ on the basic details. The catalog entry credits McIntosh alone and names Sidgwick and Jackson as the 1983 publisher, while Google Books credits McIntosh and Weaver, names Pan MacMillan for 1983 and gives 180 pages. The Open Library record lists an edition of April 16, 1987, from Macmillan Education Australia Pty Ltd, at 172 pages.

Beside the other Grant books

The catalog classes this title and all 14 others as biography, the label the Google Books description qualifies for this one. Eleven of the 14 came later, from Wansell’s Cary Grant of 1984 to Scott Eyman’s Cary Grant of 2020. Wansell has three entries in the list, dated 1983, 1984 and 1996. The Wikipedia article on Grant names Schickel, Wansell, Graham McCann, Marc Eliot and Nancy Nelson as biographers in its running text, and that text does not mention McIntosh or Weaver.