Hollywood Beauty: Linda Darnell and the American Dream

Norman/London: University of Oklahoma Press. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. (c.1991). First Edition. Hardcover. [nice clean book, essentially as new, top front corner lightly bumped; the jacket shows just a trace of surface wear]. (B&W photographs) The only major biography of one of Hollywood's most luminous actresses of the 1940s. "We follow Linda's path from her Texas childhood and first public success, through her contract with work Twentieth Century-Fox in the heyday of the big studio system. [The author] documents Darnell's discovery and marriages, the adoption of her daughter, the making of many well-known films, and her emotional difficulties, leading up to her tragic death by fire. This is the story of a naive teenager from a dysfunctional middle-class family thrust into the golden age of Hollywood. [The book] examines America's public worship of movie stars and superficial success -- its motives and consequences -- and the addiction to escapism that this worship represents." .