Lovely Me: The Life of Jacqueline Susann - Softcover

Seaman, Barbara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1888363371 ISBN 13: 9781888363371

Publisher: Seven Stories Press, 1996

Synopsis

Barbara Seaman's pioneering biography of the author of Valley of the Dolls, The Love Machine, and other mega-sellers examines the life of a woman who exhibited amazing strength in every aspect of her life-from getting her writing published and promoted to fighting her ultimate adversary, breast cancer.

About this title

Review:

Pioneering feminist health scholar and Ms. contributor Barbara Seaman dishes all the delicious dirt on Jackie Susann, who left more dirt in her wake than most tornadoes: countless affairs with the famous and infamous (including Ethel Merman!), a scary passion for her father (whom Jackie, age 4, caught in flagrante delicto with a woman not his wife), and a cancer-ravaged life, exacerbated by enough drug binges and showgirl catfights to fill the most notorious roman á clef in world history, Valley of the Dolls. Seaman also does an investigative reporter's spade work. She explains how Susann's ambitious marketing ideas revolutionized the book business--at 19 million copies sold, Valley is the top-scoring novel ever written--and she checks out the sad history of Susann's autistic son, who was stashed away in a horrifying institution (which was the subject of a Geraldo Rivera exposé), and then mysteriously disappeared from public view. Susann's poodle Josephine apparently took her son's place in her heart, and her book about the pooch, Every Night, Josephine!, launched her weird bestseller career. Valley of the Dolls is amazingly entertaining, but unless you've read Lovely Me, you don't know Jacqueline Susann.

From the Publisher:

10 1.5-hour cassettes

About this edition

• Publisher: Seven Stories Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1888363371
• ISBN 13: 9781888363371
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480