Dancing With Demons: The Authorized Biography of Dusty Springfield [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]

Valentine, Penny; Wickham, Vicki

Published by St. Martin's Press, New York, 2001

About this Item

As new condition black boards with silver spine lettering contained in a fine condition non price-clipped color photographic dust jacket. Includes Author Dedication; Acknowledgments; Prologue; Index; Photo Credits and Lyric Credits. Illustrated with a section of black-and-white photographic plates. A small remainder dot at the upper page edge. First U.S. Edition, First Printing (September 2001). "What attracted people to Dusty as much as her talent was the vulnerability she exuded. Certainly her nerves got so bad before she went on stage that she would break out in an angry red rach across her chest. And for Dusty there was an additiona lproblem: despite her wit, her talent and her intellect, what everyone noticed about her was her almost pathological urge to muddy up good things. Was it just terror of being bored and thus boring, or of being orderly and thus ordinary? It may have been both but it was overlaid with something else -- a lack of actually geing able to get pleasure from the world she inhabited and its demands. Dusty had grown up, but the only thing she thought anyone liked about her was her voice. It was the approval of her audience that she needed; their love made manifest in the amount of records they bought was the only thing that wold consle her. If they didn't lover he who the hell would? It was something that wold continue to haunt her and it was her desperate need for an audience's constant reassurance that would bring about a disastrous period in her life." - from the rear outer jacket. "From the very first note, Dusty Springfield's voice made songs such as, "I Only Want To Be With You," "Son Of A Preacher Man," and "You Don't Hve To Say You Love Me," worldwide hits and Dusty an international star. But what lay behind that unforgettable voice and stage persona? What were the demons that plagued Dusty with the highest highs and lowest lows? Vicki Wickham was Dusty's friend and manager for much of her career. Penny Valentine was the journalist closest to Dusty at the height of her fame. Together with the cooperation of Dusty's friends and lovers they now, for the first time, tell the passionate, intimate, and engrossing true story of the unforgettable star. To those who kenw her, Dusty was a bright, articulate, and, above all, warm and funny woman. But her life was full of paradox - huge success combined with desperate insecurity, a unique talent for music matched by a fear of failure, an Irish Catholic upbringing fighting against her unorthodox lifestyle. The stront pulls of her separate identities set her on a course of self-destruction. Drawing on the vivid, fresh, and personal memories of thos ewho knew Dusty, Valentine and Wickham give the most revealing portrait yet of the singer. They open up the secrets of Dusty's lost years in AMerica, her loves and losses, her emotional traumas, and severe addictions." - from the inner front jacket flap.

Seller Inventory # 006424

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Dancing With Demons: The Authorized Biography of Dusty Springfield [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press, New York
• Publication Date: 2001
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine