Events

“Giant Love is one of those rare books you can’t put down and don’t ever want to end. Well-researched, lucid, and beautifully written. . . Julie Gilbert has written a frank and beautiful tribute to the art of making art.”

—Andre Bishop, Producing Artistic Director of the Lincoln Center Theater

Edna Ferber on Texas from her best-selling novel, Giant (it sold millions worldwide between its publication in 1952 and the release of the movie in 1956):

“Biggest ranch. Biggest steer. Biggest houses. Biggest hat. Biggest state. A mania for bigness. What littleness did it hide ? . . . We’re the white Americans; we’re the big men, we eat the beef and drink the bourbon, we don’t take siestas, we don’t feel the sun, the heat or the cold, the wind or the rain, we’re Texans.”

Giant’s stupendous publication in 1952 set off a storm of protest over its portrayal of Texas manners, money and mores with oil-rich Texans threatening to shoot, lynch or ban Ferber from ever entering the state again

In Giant Love, Julie Gilbert writes of Edna Ferber, one of the most widely read writers in the first half of the 20th Century – her evolution from mid-west maverick girl-reporter to Pulitzer Prize winning, internationally best-selling novelist, from her want-to-be actress days to becoming America’s acclaimed prize-winning playwright whose collaborators – George S. Kauffman and Moss Hart, among them, were, along with Ferber, herself, the most successful playwrights of their time.

Here is the making of an American classic novel and the film that followed in its wake, from the wooing by the Academy-Award winning director, George Stevens of the prickly, stubborn Ferber, ultimately getting her to agree to everything including writing, for the first time ever, a draft of a screenplay to her okaying James Dean for the part of the ranchhand, Jett Rink, something she was dead set against.

And here is the casting of Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean and their backstory triangle of sex and seduction – each becoming a huge star because of the film; the frustrated Stevens trying to direct the instinctive but undisciplined Dean, and the months-long landmark filming in the sleepy town of Marfa, Texas, suddenly invaded by a battalion of a film crew and some of the biggest stars in the rising celebrity culture.

“A tender and patient homage to a titan of American letters. . . . With [Gilbert’s] efforts, Ferber’s fire burns on.” —The New York Times

“Truly outstanding.” —Sir Paul Smith

“Certain to become the standard biography of the artist for years to come."— Charles Finch, The Boston Globe

The extraordinary and surprising life of Piet Mondrian, one of the greatest painters of the 20th century whose unprecedented geometric art, revolutionized modern painting as well as architecture, graphic art, dress design, and much more. By acclaimed cultural historian and biographer, Nicholas Fox Weber.

An ambitious, major biography, more than a decade in work, in which Weber brings fully alive, for the first time, this dynamic artist and his universal mystical work. We see Mondrian’s years in Paris, from 1911 through the First World War, embracing the work of Georges Braque and Picasso, influenced as well by Cezanne with the beginnings of his crisscrossing of horizontal and vertical black lines that affected painting, architecture and influenced as well, sculpture, canvas, and graphic design.

Weber brings us into the life of this elusive modern master: his solitude, his eccentricities, his religiosity, his surprising passion for ballroom dancing, his avoidance of intimacy. Weber brilliantly writes of Mondrian’s exhilarating art, from his early drawings and paintings of Dutch farmhouses, sand dunes and windmills to his pure abstractions of line, color and form.

★ “Definitive. . .” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“ Weber’s vital and enlightening portrait will be the foundation for all future studies of the ‘jazz-loving pioneer of abstraction.’” — Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)

On Wednesday, October 30th at 6:30pm, the Talk of the Town series continues with its incredible second installment:

The Legendary Rose Styron visits the Coffee House to speak with Victoria Wilson, her editor for the memoir, Beyond This Harbor (Knopf) and Foster Hirsch – and discuss her celebrated, magical life.

Poet, international human rights activist, founding member of Amnesty International USA, journalist, hostess, famous beauty; discoverer of Philip Roth, longtime wife of Bill Styron, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and essayist, and together, America’s literary golden couple at home and abroad; lifelong friend to everyone from Truman Capote and Robert Penn Warren to the Kennedys, the Bernsteins, Alexander Calder, John Hersey, and Lillian Hellman, Sytron will talk about it all. We can't wait to see you there!

“[Rose Styron] has lived a life in interesting times, among legendary characters, a life well worth telling—and reading about.
—The Washington Post

Barbara Stanwyck never wrote an autobiography (and certainly never allowed any writer to get close enough to her to write a legitimate one). As such, the literary “holy grail” regarding the woman many consider to be the greatest actress of her generation was impossible to find—in fact, non-existent—for an excruciating amount of time. Fortunately, the gigantic gap in cinema history was bridged by Victoria Wilson’s A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True (1907 – 1940). And we all say, Hallelujah!

Book Cover, A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel True 1907-1940 by Victoria Wilson. Simon & Schuster.

As devoted fans, we are eternally grateful to Ms. Wilson for diving in with such detail into Barbara Stanwyck’s World. The finished product is an ambitious and comprehensive effort. Ms. Wilson earned unprecedented access to close friends and family of the ever-elusive star, thanks to her professionalism and sensitivity. Her in-depth portrait of Stanwyck and her work in the completed Volume I of the much anticipated two-volume Stanwyck biography, can safely be considered THE one. Because Stanwyck walked one of the hardest, rockiest roads to Stardom of anyone, it only makes sense that the agony of fans in waiting for her penultimate life story be just as dramatic– but very much worth the wait.

There is no other Epic Silver Screen Dame more deserving of a magnum opus. We had the enormous privilege to interview Victoria Wilson in depth about Volume I of her Life of Barbara Stanwyck.

Part 1 – About Victoria Wilson

Part 2 – A Life of Barbara Stanwyck, Volume One

Part 3 – On Writing Barbara Stanwyck’s Biography

Part 4 – Barbara Stanwyck’s Career

Part 5 – Reflecting on The Stanwyck Effect

Part 6 – Final Thoughts and Volume Two

ABOUT VICTORIA WILSON

Your professional bio is impressive, and I encourage our readers to look you up on the internet! Tell us about yourself, as much as you are willing to share with our readers.

Vicky Wilson. Photo credit: Joyce Ravid.

I was born in New York but grew up on Martha’s Vineyard. I’ve been an editor at Alfred Knopf for 51 years, and during that time, I have published many kinds of books, fiction, cultural, history, politics, photography, movie books, memoirs, everything. I was named by Bill Clinton to be on the US commission on Civil Rights.

I understand this Biography is a labor of love and time. Why did you choose Barbara Stanwyck? (Or did she choose you)?

I have published a lot of biographies, I work well with biographers, getting them to think about their subject in a more dimensional way. And I thought, it’s such an interesting form. In many ways for a time, it was more interesting than what was going on with fiction. I thought one day, why don’t I write a biography? This was in the mid-90s. I was trying to find a subject; I made a list of people who interested me, and I put Stanwyck on the list. I didn’t really know that much about her. I just knew the standard facts about her, she grew up in Brooklyn, she was married to Frank Fay, then she married Robert Taylor, and that’s about all I knew. I had worked very closely with John Kobal on a book I called The Art of the Great Hollywood Portrait Photographers. John had met most of the Hollywood greats, I remember I would have him tell me what I called bedtime stories about them, and I would take that information and shape the text he was writing. John had interviewed Stanwyck, and I remembered him talking to me about her.

The Art of the Great Hollywood Portrait Photographers by John Kobal

John died of AIDS in 1991, there were so many people that he talked to me about, but what he said and how he spoke of Stanwyck stayed with me, and this book was a sort of out of homage to John. I found out a bit more about Stanwyck, and I was immediately drawn, she had an amazing life, interesting, it was not an easy life, but a big life, she worked with most of the great directors, started in Broadway, worked in radio in its earliest days, she worked at the tail end of silent pictures and finished her career in Television. Also, at that time, there was no serious book about her.

Did you know much about Stanwyck before you started your quest? What were your “pre-conceived” notions of her before you started gathering information?

All I knew was the standard knowledge at the time, that she was this tough Brooklyn girl who was an orphan at a young age. Then through a series of insane research (at the time of no google, no internet), I discovered that her family went way back, that she was a daughter of the American revolution. I was interested in silent films, and in watching Sunrise on the big screen, what fascinated me is that it captured what happened to Stanwyck’s family, her sisters, her mother. Sunrise is a masterpiece about families going from small town America to the big cities, families that were breaking apart because of this shift. The notion of family interests me. The Stevens family was splintered because of that. What I had found out through my research, I was able to see it captured on the screen, I was just really discovering Stanwyck. I know her very, very well now.

After spending 20+ years with Barbara Stanwyck, what have you learned from her? Would you say that you “know” her now? She was one elusive person…

When I started this book, I said to myself, I’m only interested in getting as close to the truth as I can. I’m going to write this book for me so that I’m interested in it as I’m writing it. It was pretty much mostly original research. I had no idea where it was going to take me. I had the outlines of a life. And from there, it was all original research. There was no judgment and there could have been plenty of it.

I can now say that I almost know her too well. The first clue to her, the first moment when she became a real person was when I interviewed Walda Mansfield. That was a major interview. (Note from editor: Walda Mansfield was Stanwyck’s roommate in the mid/late 1920s in New York, when Barbara was still Ruby Stevens).

As a follow-up question, being such a constant in your life, has Stanwyck changed you in any way(s)?

I learned how to write a book through her, and I learned that the way in which I was brought up, even though very politically different, I was brought up in the world the way she was. I learned to be honest, cut to the chase, straightforward, to stand up for what you believe and to go forth into the world in as clean a way as possible, which I think she did.

Other than Stanwyck, who are your favorite actors, directors, as well as films of the Classic Era?

The first person who comes to mind is Irene Dunne, she is totally overlooked and was wonderful, and charming. Joan Crawford who wasn’t really an actress, but she had such a presence, and she’s so unbelievably spectacular looking and a better actress than people think. Myrna Loy, Jean Arthur, Kay Francis. And I also have a kind of new appreciation for Ginger Rogers who I think is also overlooked.

In terms of directors, there’s so many, there’s George Stevens, William Wellman, whom I wanted to write about in detail because not only they loved to work with each other, but also, because he used Fay and Stanwyck in writing A Star is Born. I like Howard Hawks, Cukor, Tay Garnett, William Wyler. I’m not a huge fan of John Ford, but I think How Green Was My Valley is a masterpiece. I also love Robert Rossen, Preston Sturges, Mamoulian, King Vidor, and early Hitchcock.

A LIFE OF BARBARA STANWYCK, STEEL TRUE EVENTS 1907-1940

Who would you say were the people that most influenced/impacted Barbara Stanwyck and why?

Her sister, Mildred, whom I write a lot about, and Arthur Hopkins, those were the two biggest influences. Willard Mack, Frank Fay and Frank Capra were also very important. The biggest influence though, was not having a mother, because she had to fend for herself in ways that a child should never have to. It was her training for Hollywood, to deal with the studio system. She was always on the outside.

-Follow-up question: In your book you mentioned that her mother wanted to be an artist, but obviously when she married and had children it became a dream. Millie was the one that continued her mother’s dream and in turn, Barbara finally fulfilled that dream.

That obviously played a part, but I think her becoming an actress was more a result of the fact that Ruby felt she didn’t have a family and found a sense of family in the Theater World. For the disassociated child that Ruby was, the theater, the backstage chaos, actors coming together, gave her a sense of family.

Frank Fay is often the villain in Stanwyck’s story. You did an amazing job of “humanizing” him, separating him from the caricature most often presented. In what ways do you think her relationship with Frank Fay changed Barbara Stanwyck for the better and/or for the worse?

I go into detail about that marriage with Frank Fay for a lot of reasons, but one of them was to show how she was always on the outside both on Broadway and in Hollywood. Even though Fay was the biggest thing on Broadway and in Vaudeville, because of his illness, their marriage became the classic alcoholic …