50 Years Without Marilyn: A Look Back

This summer, at least three new books commemorate the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death on Aug. 5, 1962. Lois Banner brings to her biography, Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox, the dedication of an academic and a feminist, as she is a professor of history and gender studies at the University of Southern California and a co-founder of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians.

Read more books about Marilyn.

Here, Banner discusses how her background brought Monroe into focus:
 
In the preface, you write that before 1990 you “dismissed Marilyn too easily” as “a sex object.” What caused ...

Read the full post >

Patricia Bosworth’s ‘Jane Fonda’

Patricia Bosworth has written acclaimed biographies of Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando and Diane Arbus, complicated figures all. But perhaps none have been as complex a subject as Jane Fonda, sex kitten, anti-war activist, feminist, exercise guru, celebrated actress—and the author’s longtime friend.

Bosworth tells us how it all came together for her latest, Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman.

Read more Best of 2011 Nonfiction.

You’ve been a friend of Jane Fonda since the ’60s. How difficult was it for you to maintain objectivity as you wrote about a friend?

It’s a very ...

Read the full post >

Jeffrey Lyons on his father and ‘The Lyons Den’

Leonard Lyons was the master of the anecdote. For 40 years (1934-1974), the stories he uncovered—about Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, JFK and scores of others—regaled readers in his nationally syndicated column “The Lyons Den.” Now, just in time for Father’s Day, Lyons’ son, film and theater critic Jeffrey Lyons, has culled the best of these anecdotes in Stories My Father Told Me: Notes from “The Lyons Den."

Read more about that latest celeb books with Rob Lowe and Chaz Bono.

In a recent interview, Lyons recalled his indefatigable father and his work:

How would you define the ...

Read the full post >

Bio Delivers Close Look at Robert Redford

Michael Feeney Callan devoted 14 years to writing Robert Redford: The Biography. Having written biographies of Anthony Hopkins, Julie Christie and Sean Connery, Callan persuaded the sometimes reticent actor-director to be interviewed for a "no holds barred" biography.

Take our Qrank quiz and see how much you know about the iconic actor/director Robert Redford.

Redford spoke openly and at great length with Callan and, further, turned over voluminous files, journals and correspondence related to his films. The actor/director's co-operation on the project apparently persuaded literally scores of A-list co-workers—Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda, Sydney Pollack and others ...

Read the full post >

Hollywood Biographer Charlotte Chandler Talks ‘Marlene’

“I love conversations,” says Charlotte Chandler, with a contagious enthusiasm that offers a clue as to how she persuaded some of Hollywood’s greatest icons—Mae West, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Ingrid Bergman and more—to talk, talk, talk. 

In Chandler’s latest, Marlene (Simon and Schuster), Marlene Dietrich speaks of her career and life. When the interviews took place in 1977, the film icon, then 76, lived in Paris in a self-imposed exile that eventually spanned 10 years. Here, Chandler tells us about the conversations that have resulted in a full shelf of her film biographies:

Read more of ...

Read the full post >

Richard Schickel on 'Conversations with Scorsese’

As tempting as it is to go off subject with Richard Schickel, the film critic for Time, author of more than 30 books about movies and the maker of dozens of documentaries about film, we managed to stay on track to discuss his latest book, Conversations with Scorsese. With just one or two detours (“Doris Day is a great artist,” says Schickel), the author filled us in on his subject, one of the greatest directors and producers of all time who’s brought films like Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, among others, to the silver screen.

What was it like ...

Read the full post >

Kirkus Q&A: Alan Arkin

Alan Arkin has appeared in more than 80 films, has written nine books, and continues to act and direct. But it was the powerful experience of conducting an improvisation workshop at the Institute for American Indian Art in New Mexico that led him to write his memoir, An Improvised Life.

How did the book come about? 

I actually sold it about four years ago. The editor made such stringent demands on me that it ran the risk of becoming something other than my own voice. So I tore up the check and [told the publishers to] mimeograph about 20 copies ...

Read the full post >