Elliot Edith Farmer (7 results)

Paperback. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Second printing. Cover and binding are worn but intact. A reading copy in fair condition. Secure packaging for safe delivery.

Trade paperback, 275 pages. Condition: Good+. Minor wear and handling to cover. Some sticker-removal damage to front. Blank spine, faint reading creases. Rare, out of print.

Softcover. VG, signed on the first blank page. (loc Nursey).

Trade Paperback. Condition: Very Good+. 1st Edition. Flat signed by author on blank preliminary page. Author has hand-corrected address on title page and stamped a new address. Trace of dust soiling to white covers, otherwise as new. Flat spine not creased. Appears to be an unread copy. Trade paperback original. The story of actress FRANCES FARMER and her family as told by her sister. Signed by Author(s).

Trade paperback. Condition: Good. [10], 275, [1] pages. Illustrated front cover. Illustrations. Cover has some wear and soiling. Rare surviving copy. Signed by the author on the fep. Ink notation on the title page changing the address of Gemaia Press from Portland, Oregon to Sequim, Washington. This was written by Frances' sister, in part in response/reaction to Frances's alleged autobiography, Will There Really Be a Morning? Frances Elena Farmer (September 19, 1913 August 1, 1970) was an American actress. She appeared in over a dozen feature films over the course of her career, though she garnered notoriety for sensationalized accounts of her life, especially her involuntary commitment to psychiatric hospitals and subsequent mental health struggles. A native of Seattle, Washington, Farmer began acting in stage productions while a student at the University of Washington. After graduating, she began performing in stock theater before signing a film contract with Paramount Pictures on her 22nd birthday in September 1935. She made her film debut in the B film Too Many Parents (1936), followed by another B picture, Border Flight, before being given the lead role opposite Bing Crosby in the musical Western Rhythm on the Range (1936). Unhappy with the opportunities the studio gave her, Farmer returned to stock theater in 1937 before being cast in the original Broadway production of Clifford Odets's Golden Boy, staged by New York City's Group Theatre. She followed this with two Broadway productions directed by Elia Kazan in 1939, but a battle with depression and binge drinking caused her to drop out of a subsequent Ernest Hemingway stage adaptation. Farmer returned to Los Angeles, earning supporting roles in the comedy World Premiere (1941) and the film noir Among the Living (1941). In 1942, publicity of her reportedly erratic behavior began to surface, and after several arrests and committals to psychiatric institutions, Farmer was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. At the request of her family, particularly her mother, she was committed to an institution in her home state of Washington, where she remained a patient until 1950. Farmer attempted an acting comeback, mainly appearing as a television host in Indianapolis on her own series, Frances Farmer Presents. Her final film role was in the 1958 drama The Party Crashers, after which she spent the majority of the 1960s occasionally performing in local theater productions staged by Purdue University. In the spring of 1970, she was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, from which she died on August 1, 1970, aged 56. Farmer has been the subject of two feature films and several books focusing on her time spent institutionalized, during which she claimed to have been subjected to systematic abuse. Her posthumously released, ghostwritten autobiography, Will There Really Be a Morning? (1972), details these claims, but has been exposed as a largely fictional work by a friend of Farmer's to clear debts. A 1982 biographical film based on this book depicted these events as true, resulting in renewed interest in her life and career. Exclusive First Edition [stated]. Presumed first printing/possibly only printing.

Softcover. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. [light foxing to edges of text block, small circular residue from removed price label at upper right corner of front cover, modest bumping to lower right corner affecting the front cover and the first several pages; original printed Portland, Oregon address of publisher on title page crossed out and hand-corrected in blue ink (to Sequim), LoC and ISBN information rubber-stamped on copyright page]. Trade PB (B&W photographs) SIGNED by the author on the front endpaper. An uncommon, very personal biography of Frances Farmer by her sister, privately published (reportedly in an edition of just 1,500 copies), more or less as a rebuttal to other books about the ill-starred actress. The author had apparently been a journalist herself, and it shows -- the book is coherently written, reasonably well-organized, and dense with detail (including the texts of numerous letters sent by Frances to various family members). Declared on the title page to be "the true story of fame and misfortunes of a brilliant, talented, beautiful actress and her family," this volume is a necessary complement to the standard works on this tragic, troubled Hollywood figure, in particular her own posthumously-published autobiography "Will There Really Be a Morning?" (referred to by her sister as "an alleged autobiography, full of salacious lies and libelous fiction") and William Arnold's "Shadowland" (also published in 1978, and the primary source for the widely-accepted but by no means ironclad allegation that Miss Farmer underwent a lobotomy while institutionalized in the 1940s -- one of the points most vigorously disputed by Ms. Elliot). This book is indicated on the copyright page to be the "Exclusive First Edition," but it seems to differ from a copy we had for sale about a decade ago, and may represent an unacknowledged revised edition. For example, in our description of the previous copy we quoted this blurb by the author: "This book has been written and published for one purpose only: to set the record straight, to correct the salacious lies, half-truths, defamation of character dealt our family members. What has happened to Frances, our parents, grandparents et al can happen to any family. There are no laws against defamation of the defenseless dead." But here's what interesting: that declaration appears nowhere in this copy, which includes in its acknowledgements the somewhat toned-down statement that the book was intended "to publish the truth, to offset the awful libel against Frances and our folks, [so that] the public now has the facts to which they are entitled." Alas, because we no longer have that other copy on hand, we are unable to make a direct comparison.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good. VG, slight shelfwear, signed by the author.