Anthony Slide is the author or editor of more than 200 works on the history of popular entertainment. Among his achievements are the first volumes on early American cinema, the Vitagraph Company, early women directors, the cinema and Ireland, and many more. His books have been honored by the American Library Association as Outstanding Reference Sources of the Year, and by Choice Magazine as Outstanding Academic Books of the Year. In 1990, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by Bowling Green University, at which time he was hailed by Lillian Gish as "our pre-eminent historian of the silent film."