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Michael Jackson’s Library: Favorite Books
by Lacienega on DECEMBER 21, 2011 in BOOKS, FAVORITE THINGS Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and
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And the third thing was that Michael was extremely well-read. FRIENDS AND FAMILY ON TWITTER

I didn’t know that.

Anthony Jackson
No. Few people did. In trial – and I knew Michael, but I got to know him a lot better at the Austin Brown
trial. The judge was doing jury selection, and it was time for break. Judge Melville said, Brandi Jackson
‘Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know that jury service is very, very important.’ He’s
Brett Barnes
trying to convince people not to have stupid excuses to get out of jury service. All judges do
Donte Jackson
this. He says, ‘The jury system is a very time-honored system. It’s been around for 200
Frank Cascio
years. We’re going to take a break and come back in 15 minutes.
Jaafar Jackson

We stand up and the judge leaves, and Michael turns to me and says, “Bob, the jury system Jackie Jackson

is much older than 200 years, isn’t it?’ I said, ‘Well, yeah, it goes back to the Greeks.’ He Janet Jackson

says, ‘Oh yeah, Socrates had a jury trial, didn’t he?’ I said, ‘Yeah, well, you know how it Jennifer Batten

turned out for him.’ Michael says, ‘Yeah, he had to drink the hemlock.’ That’s just one little Jermaine Jackson
tidbit. We talked about psychology, Freud and Jung, Hawthorne, sociology, black history Jodi Gomes
and sociology dealing with race issues. But he was very well read in the classics of Kenny Ortega
psychology and history and literature. LaToya Jackson
Lisa Marie Presley
That’s fascinating. Marlon Jackson
Michael Bearden
He loved to read. He had over 10,000 books at his house. And I know that because – and I
MJ's Estate
hate to keep referring to the case, because I don’t want the case – the case should not
Omer Bhatti
de ne him. But one of the things that we learned – the DA went through his entire library
and found, for instance, a German art book from 1930-something. And it turned out that Paris Jackson

the guy who was the artist behind the book had been prosecuted by the Nazis. Nobody knew Prince Jackson

that, but then the cops get up there and say, ‘We found this book with pictures of nude Randy Jackson

people in it.’ But it was art, with a lot of text. It was art. And they found some other things, Randy Jackson Jnr

a briefcase that didn’t belong to him that had some Playboys in it or something. But they Taj Jackson
went through the guy’s entire house, 10,000 books. And it caused us to do the same thing, Taryll Jackson
and look at it. Teddy Riley
Tito Jackson
TJ Jackson
 And there were places that he liked to sit, and you could see the books with his bookmarks Travis Payne
in it, with notes and everything in it where he liked to sit and read. And I can tell you from
talking to him that he had a very – especially for someone who was self-taught, as it were,
TWITTER UPDATES
and had his own reading list – he was very well-read. And I don’t want to say that I’m
well-read, but I’ve certainly read a lot, let’s put it that way, and I enjoy philosophy and
history and everything myself, and it was very nice to talk to him, because he was very Error: Twitter did not respond. Please wait a few
intellectual, and he liked to talk about those things. But he didn’t aunt it, and it was very minutes and refresh this page.
seldom that he would initiate the conversation like that, but if you got into a conversation
like that with him, he was there.
META

Do you remember the last time you saw him, or talked to him?

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The last time I talked to him was right after the trial, and then he moved out of the country.
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I had not seen him personally, in person – I talked to him on the phone – since them. Of Entries RSS
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course, I talked to people around him, because we still took care of matters for him. But the
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best I can say, and I don’t want to oversell my signi cance in his world, but I want to
0
convey this side of him that people didn’t see. I just hate – every time I hear Jay Leno or

somebody take a cheap shot – and Jay Leno I think is a very funny man – but every time

they take a cheap shot I think, that really isn’t fair, because that’s not who he is. And few

people had an opportunity to really experience the kindness of him and his family. And few

people really had the opportunity the have these intellectual discussions about great

thinkers and writers. Freud and Jung – go down the street and try and nd ve people who

can talk about Freud and Jung.

Jermaine Jackson, “You Are Not Alone”:

But it was when we rst laid eyes on her library that Michael started to become the

voracious reader that he was. Rose [Fine] handled each book like a precious artifact, and

she was always on at us to read, read, read – and Michael heeded this advice. Few people

know that my brother was a bookish nerd, always swotting up on some random subject to

better his vocabulary, knowledge, or understanding of life. “I love reading. There is a

wonderful world to be discovered in books,” he said. Michael’s early reading material

concerned Fred Astaire or Elvis, or child stars Shirley Temple or Sammy Davis Junior. In

later years, his reading extended from Steven Spielberg to Alfred Hitchcock, President

Reagan to President Roosevelt, Malcolm X to Dr Martin Luther King, and Mussolini to

Hitler. I doubt many people would have given him credit for the general knowledge he

amassed. Except Rose [Fine.] She always taught us that we can learn from the best by

following history’s lessons; that it has left the footprints for us to follow. That is why

Michael’s autobiography, Moonwalk, starts with a quote from Thomas Edison:

“When I want to discover something, I begin by reading up everything that has been done

along that line in the past – that’s what all these books in the library are for. I see what has
 been accomplished at great labor and expense in the past. I gather data of many thousands

of experiments as a starting point, and then I make thousands more. “The three great

essentials to achieve anything worth while are, rst, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness;

third, common sense.”

That quote still stands as the truest re ection of Michael’s approach to his own mastery,

and they were the words he actually posted in gold letters to the cloth, coffee brown walls of

his sound studio at Hayvenhurst.

Frank Cascio, “My Friend Michael”:

On weekends in the city, we often went to the movies or comic book stores, but what I

remember most fondly about those visits was that Michael introduced me to the joys of

books. I was dyslexic, and reading had always been tough for me, but when I complained

that I didn’t like to read, he said, “Well, then you will be dumb and ignorant for the rest of

your life. Frank, you can do anything you want in this world, but if you don’t have

knowledge, you are nothing. If I gave you a million dollars right now, would you take it? Or

would you want to have the knowledge of how to make that million on your own?”

I knew the correct answer to this question. “I’ll take the knowledge.”

“That’s right. Because with knowledge you can make the rst million into two.”

⇑ FICTION

⇓⇓ Peter Pan, by J.M Barrie

⇓⇓ Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

⇓⇓ To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
⇓⇓ The Old Man And The Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
⇓⇓ Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving
⇓⇓ The Verger, by Somerset Maugham
⇓⇓ The Complete Works of O. Henry
⇓⇓ The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame
⇓⇓ The Red Balloon, by Albert Lamorisse
⇓⇓ They Cage the Animals at Night, by Jennings Michael Burch
⇓⇓ The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein
⇓⇓ Complete Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
⇓⇓ Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, by Edgar Allan Poe

⇑ SPIRITUAL/BUSINESS/SELF HELP

⇓⇓ The 48 Laws Of Power, by Robert Greene

⇓⇓ As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen
⇓⇓ The Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale
⇓⇓ The Gift of Acabar, by Og Mandino
⇓⇓ Leaders Of Men: Types And Principles Of Success, As Illustrated In The Lives And Careers Of
Famous Americans Of The Present day, by Henry Woldmar Ruoff
⇓⇓ The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino
⇓⇓ Your Creative Power, by Alex Osborn
⇓⇓ Reach Out for a New Life, by Robert Harold Schuller
⇓⇓ Hagakure: The Book Of The Samurai, by T. Yamamoto
⇓⇓ 365 Exercises For The Mind, by Pierre Berloquin
⇓⇓ Books by Sri Aurobindo
⇓⇓ Books by Kalki Krishnamurthy
⇓⇓ Aid To Bible Understanding

⇑ BLACK HISTORY

MJ Neverland Memorabilia Show

⇓⇓ Malcolm X, by Alex Haley

⇓⇓ The Negro Caravan, by Sterling A. Brown

⇓⇓ Black Heroes of The 20th Century, by Jessie Carney Smith
⇓⇓ Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, by James Allen
⇓⇓ Black in America, by Eli Reed
⇓⇓ King: A Photobiography of Martin Luther King Jnr, by Charles Johnson, Bob Adelman
⇓⇓ In Praise of Black Women, Volume 1: Ancient African Queens, by Simone Schwarz-Bart
⇓⇓ The Face of Our Past: Images of Black Women from Colonial America to the Present, by
Kathleen Thompson and Hilary MacAustin
⇓⇓ Brown Sugar: Over 80 Years of America's Black Female Superstars
⇓⇓ Before the May ower, by Lerone Bennet Jr
⇓⇓ How To Eat To Live by Elijah Muhammad
⇓⇓ The White Problem in America, by JET magazine authors
⇓⇓ Re ections in Black, by Deborah Willis
⇓⇓ The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality? by Cheikh Anta Diop (1989)
⇓⇓ Black Dance in America: A History Through Its People, by James Haskins (1990)
⇓⇓ The Hotel Book: Great Escapes Africa

⇑ POETRY

⇓⇓ The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran

⇓⇓ Robert Burns poems - "Ae Fond Kiss, And Then We Sever", "Tom O'Shanter"
⇓⇓ Poetry by Rabindranath Tagore
⇓⇓ Su Poetry
⇓⇓ Thoughts of Love: A Collection of Poems on Love, by Susan Polis Schutz
⇓⇓ The Children's Hour, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
⇓⇓ The Tyger, by William Blake
⇓⇓ The Bridge of Sighs, by Thomas Hood
⇓⇓ The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran

⇑ BIOGRAPHIES ON ICONS

⇓⇓ Abraham Lincoln, by Carl Sandburg

⇓⇓ Lincoln's Devotional, by Carl Sandburg

⇓⇓ James Dean: An American Icon, by David Loehr
⇓⇓ My Life in Pictures, by Charlie Chaplin
⇓⇓ Lennon in America: 1971-1980, Based in Part on the Lost Lennon Diaries, by Geoffery Giuliano
⇓⇓ The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics, by Alan Aldridge
⇓⇓ Glass Onion: The Beatles In Their Own Words, by Geoffrey Giuliano
⇓⇓ The Lost Lennon Interviews, by Giuliano
⇓⇓ Things We Said Today: Conversations with the Beatles, by Geoffrey Giuliano
⇓⇓ Elvis Day By Day, by Peter Guralnick
⇓⇓ The Rolling Stones: A Life on the Road
⇓⇓ Bruce Lee: The Celebrated life of the Golden Dragon, by John Little
⇓⇓ Elia Kazan: A Life, by Elia Kazan
⇓⇓ Songs My Mother Taught Me, by Marlon Brando
⇓⇓ Steps In Time, by Fred Astaire
⇓⇓ My Autobiography, by Charlie Chaplin
⇓⇓ Goldwyn: A Biography by A. Scott Berg
⇓⇓ Kindly Leave the Stage: Story of Variety, by Roger Wilmut
⇓⇓ Duse: A Biography, by William Weaver
⇓⇓ The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences, by Sir Frederick Treves
⇓⇓ The Soulful Divas: Personal Portraits of Over a Dozen Divine Divas, from Nina Simone, Aretha
Franklin & Diana Ross to Patti Labelle, Whitney Houston & Janet Jackson

⇑ HISTORY

⇓⇓ White Nights: The Story Of A Prisoner In Russia, by Menachem Begin

⇓⇓ The Rest Of Us: The Rise Of America's Eastern European Jews, by Stephen Birmingham

⇑ MUSIC

⇓⇓ Blues Who's Who: A Biographical Dictionary of Blues Singers, by Sheldon Harris

⇓⇓ The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock: Expanded and Updated Edition, by Colin Larkin
⇓⇓ Stravinsky In The Theater, by Minna Lederman
⇓⇓ Recording Studio Design, by Phillip Newell

⇑ DISNEY

These are among the many rare rst-edition and out-of-print Disney books Jackson

collected and stored in his library. “He had thousands of Disney books that he had bought,

that people had given him, that Disney had given him,” Miko Brando says. “He studied and

read them. He knew a lot about Disney, one of his biggest heroes.” Michael didn’t limit
 himself to books. “He collected everything Walt Disney fromA to Z. When we’d go to

Disneyland, he’d buy a lot of souvenirs. Anything Disney, he had it.”

The Art Of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse To The Magic Kingdoms

Walt Disney’s Treasury of Children’s Classics

Mickey Mouse by Pierre Lambert

The Quotable Walt Disney

Discover Walt: The Magical Life of Walt Disney

Disney’s World: A Biography, by Leonard Moslev

Walt Disney: An American Original

Walt Disney: Famous Quotes

Of Mice And Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, by Leonard Maltin

The Updated Of cial Encyclopedia: Disney A to Z

⇑ ABOUT MOVIES

⇓⇓ The Complete Films of Cecil B. Demille, By Gene Ringgold

⇓⇓ A Pictorial History of Horror Movies, by Denis Gifford

⇓⇓ Acting Class, by Milton Katselas
⇓⇓ MGM's Greatest Musicals, by Hugh Fordin
⇓⇓ 70 Years of the Oscar: The Of cial History of the Academy Awards by Robert A. Osborne

⇑ COSTUME

⇓⇓ Costumes By Karinska, by Toni Bentley

Stage Costume Advice

Love of a Glove, by CC Collins 1945

Scenic design

Costume Cavalcade

The History Of Costume

⇑ NATURE AND ANIMALS

⇓⇓ Animal Language, by Michael Bright

⇑ PHOTOGRAPHY AND ART

⇓⇓ Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor Paperback, by Lewis Hine

⇓⇓ Lewis W. Hine: The Empire State Building by Lewis Hine

⇓⇓ Planet Vegas : A Portrait of Las Vegas by 20 of the World's Leading Photographers: Rick
Browne, James Marshall
⇓⇓ Hurrell Hollywood: Photographs 1928-1990
⇓⇓ The Art Book, by Phaidon
⇓⇓ Going East: Two Decades of Asian Photography, by Max Pam
⇓⇓ Skinhead (1982), by Nick Knight
⇓⇓ The Art of WALL.E, by Tim Hauser

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Heroes of the 20th Century, Black in America, books owned by Michael Jackson, by Max Pam,
Deborah Willis, Eleonora Duse, Elijah Muhammad, Going East, Goldwyn, How To Eat To Live,
Hurrell Hollywood, In Praise Of Black Women, inside MJ's bedroom, Jennings Michael Burch,
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Haley, Martin Luther King, Michael Jackson racial issues, Michael Jackson's blackness, Michael
Jackson's Library, Negro Carvan, Neverland, Neverland library, Neverland raid, O Henry, Peter Pan,
Planet Vegas, Porn owned by Michael Jackson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Reflections in black, Rip
Van Winkle, Sri Aurobindo, The Children's Hour, The Gift Of Acabar, The Giving Tree, The Greatest
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Red Balloon, The Reluctant Dragon, The Tyger, The Verger, The White Problem In America, They
Cage The Animals At Night, To Kill A Mockingbird, Vaccaro vault, Without Sanctuary

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2 Responses to Michael Jackson’s Library: Favorite Books

vero April 14, 2012 at 5:53 am #

Thanks for this –wish we could have a list of his entire 10,000 book library–but

this is the first list I’ve come across

REPLY
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» 101 Facts About Michael Jackson Todo Michael Jackson - September 5, 2012
[...] Michael had a library of 10,000 books and one of Michael’s favorites was Jonathan

Livingstone Seagull. Michael recommended this book to people like Kobe Bryant, Anthony

Jackson, Frank Cascio. [Source] [...]

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