The Bruce Lee Library is composed of books written by or about Bruce Lee (1940-1973), famous Hongkongese and American martial artist, philosopher, author, instructor of martial arts, actor, filmmaker and screenwriter.
The editor commissioned by Bruce Lee's estate for this series was John Little.
Tuttle Publishing is the official publisher of this series.
Bruce Lee was a Hong Kong-American martial artist and actor whose career spanned Hong Kong and the United States. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that is often credited with paving the way for modern mixed martial arts (MMA). Lee is considered by critics, media, and other martial artists to be the most influential martial artist of all time and a pop culture icon of the 20th century, who bridged the gap between East and West. He is credited with promoting Hong Kong action cinema and helping to change the way Chinese people were presented in American films.
Jeet Kune Do is a hybrid martial art conceived and practiced by martial artist Bruce Lee. It was formed from Lee's experiences in unarmed fighting and self-defense—as well as eclectic, Zen Buddhist and Taoist philosophies—as a new school of martial arts thought.
Brandon Bruce Lee was an American actor and martial artist. Establishing himself as a rising action star in the early 1990s, he landed his breakthrough role as Eric Draven in the dark fantasy film The Crow (1994). Lee's life and career, however, were cut short by his accidental death during The Crow's production.
Dan Inosanto is an American martial arts instructor. Inosanto is an authority on Jeet Kune Do, Filipino Martial Arts, and Pencak Silat.
Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms kung fu, kuoshu or wushu, are multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Ancient China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common traits, identified as "families" of martial arts. Examples of such traits include Shaolinquan (少林拳) physical exercises involving All Other Animals (五形) mimicry or training methods inspired by Old Chinese philosophies, religions and legends. Styles that focus on qi manipulation are called internal, while others that concentrate on improving muscle and cardiovascular fitness are called external. Geographical association, as in northern and southern, is another popular classification method.
Ted Wong was a martial arts practitioner best known for studying under Bruce Lee.
Linda Emery Lee Cadwell is a retired American teacher and writer, the widow of martial arts master and actor Bruce Lee (1940–1973), and the mother of actor Brandon Lee (1965–1993), and actress Shannon Lee. She is the author of the Bruce Lee biography Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew, upon which the film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is based, as well as the founder, a former trustee of, and an unpaid advisor of the Bruce Lee Foundation.
William Cheung or Cheung Cheuk-hing is a Hong Kong Wing Chun kung fu practitioner and currently the Grandmaster of his lineage of Wing Chun, entitled Traditional Wing Chun (TWC). He also heads the sanctioning body of TWC, the Global Traditional Wing Chun Kung Fu Association (GTWCKFA). He is the recipient of a Masters Award for lifetime achievement in Kung Fu from Martial Arts Australia.
Tao of Jeet Kune Do is a book expressing Bruce Lee's martial arts philosophy and viewpoints, published posthumously. The project for this book began in 1970 when Bruce Lee suffered a back injury during one of his practice sessions. During this time he could not train in martial arts. He was ordered by his doctors to wear a back brace for 6 months in order to recover from his injury. This was a very tiring and dispiriting time for Lee who was always very physically active.
Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self-Defense is a book written by Bruce Lee expressing his martial arts philosophy and viewpoints. It describes his early style of gung fu which was based heavily on Wing Chun. This was before the development of his unique style of martial arts called Jeet Kune Do in the late 1960s.
Tim Tackett is a martial arts instructor and author from Redlands, California who runs a non-profit group dedicated to preserving Bruce Lee's art of Jeet Kune Do.
Jesse Raymond Glover was an American martial artist. He was Bruce Lee's first student. He met Lee in 1959, as they both attended Edison Technical College and practiced judo with Lee. Glover was a psychology major and a champion judoka. The character Jerome Sprout in the 1993 film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was based on Glover.
Bruce Lee's Fighting Method is a book of volumes covering Bruce Lee's martial arts abilities of the Jeet Kune Do movement. The book is available as a single hardcover volume or a series of four paperback volumes. The text describes Bruce Lee's Kung Fu fighting techniques, philosophy and training methods. This book was originally written in 1966 by Bruce Lee. However, Lee decided not to publish this work as he feared that instructors would use the fighting knowledge in this text to promote themselves. In 1978, after Bruce Lee's death, his widow Linda Lee Cadwell decided to make available the information on her husband's work. Lee's death changed the perspective of releasing the information that Bruce Lee himself had vacillated about. The book was published with the help of Mitoshi Uyehara. Uyehara was the founder and owner of Black Belt Magazine. During the early years of the publication, Uyehara served as the publisher. Bruce Lee contributed many articles to the publication during the 1960s and a friendship ensued between the two men. Uyehara, a martial artist in his own right, was a key personage in arranging Lee's material for publication.
Jerry Poteet was an American martial arts instructor, recognized for his teachings in the art of Jeet Kune Do as an original Bruce Lee student.
John R. Little is a writer and bodybuilding advocate. A native of Canada, Little is a writer in the fields of martial arts, bodybuilding and physical conditioning.
Martial artist and actor Bruce Lee has been subject to extensive media coverage.
James Yimm Lee was an American martial arts pioneer, teacher, author, and publisher. James Lee is known for being a mentor, teacher and friend of Bruce Lee.
Richard Bustillo was an American martial arts instructor from Hawaii who was a student of the late Bruce Lee and an authority on Jeet Kune Do Concepts and Filipino Martial Arts.
Takauki "Taky" Kimura was a Japanese American martial artist who was best known as being one of Bruce Lee's top students and closest friends - and a certified instructor in Jun Fan Gung Fu, personally certified by Bruce Lee himself. Kimura was also the best man at Lee's wedding, and one of six pallbearers during his funeral, the others including Dan Inosanto, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Ray Chin and Robert Lee, Bruce's brother.
Salem Assli was a French-American martial artist, instructor, and researcher best known as the first B.F. Savate instructor in the US. He also continued the development of martial arts on five continents and is Head of the French association of Jeet Kune Do and Filipino Kali.