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A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940, by Victoria Wilson
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“860 glittering pages” (Janet Maslin, The New York Times): The first volume of the full-scale astonishing life of one of our greatest screen actresses; her work, her world, her Hollywood through an American century.
Frank Capra called her, “The greatest emotional actress the screen has yet known.” Now Victoria Wilson gives us the first volume of the rich, complex life of Barbara Stanwyck, an actress whose career in pictures spanned four decades beginning with the coming of sound (eighty-eight motion pictures) and lasted in television from its infancy in the 1950s through the 1980s. Here is Stanwyck revealed as the quintessential Brooklyn girl whose family was in fact of old New England stock…her years in New York as a dancer and Broadway star…her fraught marriage to Frank Fay, Broadway genius…the adoption of a son, embattled from the outset…her partnership with Zeppo Marx (the “unfunny Marx brother”) who altered the course of Stanwyck’s movie career and with her created one of the finest horse breeding farms in the west…her fairytale romance and marriage to the younger Robert Taylor, America’s most sought-after male star… Here is the shaping of her career through 1940 with many of Hollywood's most important directors, among them Frank Capra, “Wild Bill” William Wellman, George Stevens, John Ford, King Vidor, Cecil B. Demille, Preston Sturges, set against the times—the Depression, the New Deal, the rise of the unions, the advent of World War II and a fast-changing, coming-of-age motion picture industry.
And at the heart of the book, Stanwyck herself—her strengths, her fears, her frailties, losses, and desires—how she made use of the darkness in her soul, transforming herself from shunned outsider into one of Hollywood’s most revered screen actresses.
Fifteen years in the making—and written with full access to Stanwyck’s family, friends, colleagues and never-before-seen letters, journals, and photographs. Wilson’s one-of-a-kind biography—“large, thrilling, and sensitive” (Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Town & Country)—is an “epic Hollywood narrative” (USA TODAY), “so readable, and as direct as its subject” (The New York Times). With 274 photographs, many published for the first time.
- Sales Rank: #358607 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-11-12
- Released on: 2013-11-12
- Format: Kindle eBook
Amazon.com Review
Michael Korda on A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True 1907-1940 By Victoria Wilson
Michael Korda has been Victoria Wilson's editor during the fifteen years of the Stanwyck project. He was the Editor in Chief of Simon and Schuster for 37 years and edited the likes of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, David McCullough, and countless others. He is also the prolific author of Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia, Ulysses S. Grant, With Wings Like Eagles, and more. He lives in upstate New York.
The phrases “long awaited” and “groundbreaking” are often cast around rather too loosely in book publishing, but for once they apply with perfect truth to Victoria Wilson’s A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel True, 1907-1940, the first volume of her remarkable biography of the brilliant, enigmatic and complex actress whose life spanned the richest and fastest changing period of the motion picture business, which included the coming of sound and the beginning of color, and whose career took her from Broadway to Hollywood stardom and television.
Movie star biographies taken as a genre tend to be slim and short on facts, more about glamor (and occasionally scandal) than about the business of becoming a star, but Victoria Wilson has brought to her subject the narrative brilliance, the phenomenal research, and the broad historical overview of such distinguished biographers as Robert Caro and David McCullough—indeed this may be, to my knowledge is, the first time that a figure from the world of show business has been treated as a serious subject, and the result is a major book that is not only endlessly fascinating, but full of surprises, and above all thoroughly readable from the first page to the last.
Ms. Wilson has that most important of qualities for a biographer, empathy for her subject, but also the thirst for details, the determination to root Barbara Stanwyck firmly in her time, and a real sense not only for what made Barbara Stanwyck tick, but for how a movie gets made, as well as for the perfectionism and determination that made Stanwyck a legendary performer who worked with such demanding directors as Frank Capra, King Vidor, Cecil B. DeMille, Preston Sturges, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, and Anatole Litvak.
In the process, Ms. Wilson presents not just a riveting and profoundly convincing portrait of Barbara Stanwyck, both as a woman and as a hugely gifted performer, with a careful, subtle description of her strengths and her weaknesses, but a sweeping panorama of the world she came from, grew up in, and from which she fought her way up to stardom at a time when America itself was changing radically and going through great historical crises.
Fifteen years in the making—and that despite a career that has taken Victoria Wilson to an enviable position as one of the most respected editors in book publishing, Vice President and Senior Editor at Alfred A. Knopf—A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel True 1907-1940 establishes her as a uniquely gifted biographer, as sensitive to Barbara Stanwyck’s traumatic childhood, complicated emotional life and difficult marriage as she is to understand that most complicated of all the creative arts, the making of a motion picture. In a career that spanned eighty-eight motion pictures, including such classics as Stella Dallas, Union Pacific, Double Indemnity, and Sorry, Wrong Number, Barbara Stanwyck carved out for herself a unique place as a great star who brought to the screen much of the fierce intelligence, complexity, artistic integrity and inner resolve that marked her own life.
This first volume ends with Stanwyck at the peak of her career, and I believe it will make you, as it did me, look forward expectantly to the next volume.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Likely best remembered for her roles in the classic films Stella Dallas, Double Indemnity, and Sorry, Wrong Number, Stanwyck enjoyed a career that spanned four decades, from chorus girl to Broadway to film to television star. Wilson spent 15 years exhaustively researching the life and career of an iconic actress (this is the first of two volumes). Born Ruby Stevens, orphaned at a young age, she was steeled by a traumatic childhood in Brooklyn. Wilson chronicles Stevens’ transformation from chorus girl to Broadway actress, the name change, and other metamorphoses along the way to a career in 88 films, a troubled marriage to Broadway stage actor Frank Fay, and, later, a fairy-tale marriage to a young Robert Taylor as well as her work with legendary directors Frank Capra, Cecil B. DeMille, Preston Sturges, and Billy Wilder. Wilson also chronicles the metamorphoses of Broadway and moviemaking, with the advent of sound and then color, through the seismic social and cultural changes of Prohibition, the world wars, and the Great Depression. Richly researched, drawing on interviews with Stanwyck’s friends, family, and colleagues as well as her journals and letters, this biography offers insights into the strengths and insecurities of a woman famous for her trademark toughness and vulnerability. Photographs enhance this fabulous and expansive examination of the life of an iconic American actress. --Vanessa Bush
From Bookforum
A Life of Barbara Stanwyck will unquestionably remain the biography of record; beyond Wilson’s excavation of so much that would otherwise have been lost, her book has a deep sensitivity to the seriousness and subtlety of Stanwyck’s craft. This is the biography not of a Hollywood phenomenon but of a serious artist. —Geoffrey O'Brien
Most helpful customer reviews
77 of 84 people found the following review helpful.
An encyclopedia as well as a biography - a disappointment
By Douglas M
There is no doubt that the long awaited biography of Barbara Stanwyck will be the benchmark in the future for any reference to the actress. It is an enormous book with meticulous research and comprehensive information but strictly as a biography it has some serious flaws. The author has chosen to "record the facts" which is admirable in itself, leaving the reader generally to draw conclusions, but the offset is the text is very dry and the tone somewhat detached. There is not even a Foreword in which the author gives a clue to her own feelings about Stanwyck.
It may be that given this was a 15 year effort, the author "lost the wood, for the trees" and a severe editor was needed. For example, too much is given to analysis of Robert Taylor's films, with further pages devoted to Luise Rainer, Ann Harding, Anne Shirley and Fred MacMurray just for starters. Then there are the directors - John Ford, Frank Capra, Rouben Mamoulian, Cecil B. De Mille etc - each with much more information than is required here, given that the reader can research other sources if interested in these individuals. The point is that the biographical details of Stanwyck get lost. I simply began to skip page after page of irrelevant (to Stanwyck) detail.
And those movie plots!! They go on for pages with little or no analysis of Stanwyck's interpretations; ironical too, because Dan Calahan's heavily criticised book on Stanwyck does a much better job in this area. There are some surprising errors too, if minor, such as a George Hurrell portrait of Stanwyck from "The Gay Sisters" which is labled at least 7 years earlier; the claim that Stanwyck first sings in "Banjo on My knee" when it had already been noted she sang 4 years earlier in "The Purchase Price". And why is Lucille Le Seur introduced without the author noting she became Joan Crawford? Crawford was one of Stanwyck's few close friends in Hollywood in the thirties but there is no attempt to understand what bonded them.
For me, the best parts of the book were the early and much more precise chapters revealing Stanwyck's ancestory and family relationships, eventually leading to her emergence as an actress on Broadway. Her reputation for privacy becomes understandable removed as she was from a loving and stable home environment. Her marriage to Frank Fay and commitment to this difficult man to the detriment of her own relationships is documented in detail and her loyalty is admirable but distressing. Also, her ability to cut herself off from those associated with her difficult past is a sure sign of her determination "to leave the past behind." The same applies to her adopted son - nice idea but a complete inability to provide a loving home eventuating in abandonment, maybe because of associations with less happy times. When she meets Robert Taylor, we begin to understand the dynamics culminating in marriage, and far more credible than the "gay" rumours which have always surrounded this couple. She was able to take control and guide him and he was a willing student in every way. It makes sense.
The book ends abruptly in 1940, in anticipation of the next volume. This, once again, contributes to the impersonal "encyclopedic" tone of the volume. An "Afterword" from the author might have whetted my appetite for Volume 2 but at this stage, given that the next period of Stanwyck's life is more readily accessible, I doubt whether I will be purchasing. I have passed on my copy of "Steel True."
49 of 53 people found the following review helpful.
Missed Opportunities
By Teresa Miller
First of all, the author's dedication and respect for her subject, the incredible Barbara Stanwyck, is obvious, and I want to commend her for that. What confounds me is the careless editing of the book, especially since the author is such a respected editor herself and this book was published by S & S. I agree with several of the earlier reviews--that for some reason the book struggles to maintain its focus on Stanwyck herself, getting side-tracked by overly detailed backstory about directors, writers, other actors. This often leads to awkward transitions from section to section that interrupt the momentum of Stanwyck's own story. Even when the book does settle on Stanwyck, it somehow doesn't provide any insight into her beyond the basic details. For example, we're told Stanwyck was raped by an extended family member, but we don't feel the ongoing resonance of that tragedy. Then there are the missed opportunities. Another reviewer has already mentioned how the early reference to Lucille LeSueur failed to note that LeSueur later became known as Joan Crawford, a connection that would have made later anecdotes about Joan Crawford's friendship with Stanwyck more substantive. Finally, there are the just plain copy editing errors, one of Stanwyck's character's names being alternately spelled Bonny in the narrative and Bonnie in the accompanying photo.
I rarely share reviews, because I understand how hard it is to write a book, especially one of this scope. And I am convinced that Ms. Wilson is ideally suited to be Stanwyck's biographer. I'm just hoping that as Ms. Wilson approaches part 2 of Stanwyck's biography, she can use her own considerable talents to focus on Stanwyck more exclusively and help us get to know her on a deeper level.
89 of 100 people found the following review helpful.
The Best Biography
By Constant Reader
I have been reading entertainment biographies for over 50 years. This is the best one I have read to date. Actually, I would go so far to say it is the best biography I have ever read period. This is a long book and only volume one. There is a lot of detail. That can make for a very dry read. Not with this book. Ms Wilson writes so that you feel you are right next to Barbara Stanwyck as she goes through her life. She also give insights and facts into Ms Stanwyck's personality that I never knew. I didn't realize she had three older sisters when her mother died and her father abandoned them. I always thought it was just she and her brother struggling through childhood. I didn't realize she had a shy personality. There are so many interesting facts and details in this biography. I think Barbara Stanwyck was one of our best actresses-she had a tremendous range. She could play practically any type of character. I found her to be fascinating but little known. This book reveals a lot about her. It also gives wonderful details and history of the theater world in New York and the film industry in Hollywood. I have not found one dull or boring page. If you like Barbara Stanwyck and the world of entertainment then I think you will enjoy this book as much as I do. Frankly, I can't wait for volume 2.
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