She Always Knew How: Mae West, a Personal Biography (Thorndike Press Large Print Biography Series)
Selected Book Details
- Hardcover
- Edition: Lrg
- Author: Charlotte Chandler
- Publisher: Thorndike Press
- Release Date: July 2009
- ISBN-10: 1410416704
- ISBN-13: 9781410416704
- List Price: $31.50
Price Comparisons
E-mail these Cheap Book Prices to a friend!
| Store | Price | Condition | Free Shipping? | Online Coupons and Deals | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | $29.50 as of 3/21 3pm EST | New | NO, $3.99 |
| |||
| Amazon | $29.58 as of 3/21 3pm EST | Used | NO, $3.99 |
| |||
| Alibris | $29.59 as of 3/21 3pm EST | Used | NO, $3.99 |
| |||
| Half.com | $31.06 as of 3/21 3pm EST | New | NO, $3.49 to $3.99 |
| |||
| Half.com | $31.21 as of 3/21 3pm EST | Used | NO, $3.49 to $3.99 |
| |||
| Amazon | $31.50 as of 3/21 3pm EST | New | YES, spend $25+ |
| |||
| Alibris | $32.53 as of 3/21 3pm EST | New | NO, $3.99 |
| |||
| Alibris | $37.80 as of 3/21 3pm EST | New | YES, Spend $49+ on eligible books |
| |||
| TextbookX | $44.38 as of 3/21 3pm EST | New | YES, spend $49+ |
| |||
| button not working? Click Here | |||||||
Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryIn She Always Knew How, her wonderful new biography of legendary actress Mae West, acclaimed biographer Charlotte Chandler draws on a series of interviews she conducted with the star just months before her death in 1980. From their first meeting, where West held out a diamond-covered hand in greeting and lamented her interviewer's lack of jewels, to their farewell, where the star was still gamely offering advice on how to attract men, Mae West and Charlotte Chandler developed a warm rapport that glows on every page of this biography. Actress, playwright, screenwriter, and iconic sex symbol Mae West was born in New York in 1893. She created a scandal -- and a sensation -- on Broadway with her play Sex in 1926. Convicted of obscenity, she was sentenced to ten days in prison. She went to jail a convict and emerged a star. Her next play, Diamond Lil, was a smash, and she would play the role of Diamond Lil in different variations for virtually her entire film career. In Hollywood she played opposite George Raft, Cary Grant (in one of his first starring roles), and W. C. Fields, among others. She was the number one box-office attraction during the 1930s and saved Paramount Studios from bankruptcy. Her films included some notorious one-liners -- which she wrote herself -- that have become part of Hollywood lore: from "too much of a good thing can be wonderful" to "When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better." Her risqué remarks got her banned from radio for a dozen years, but behind the clever quips was Mae's deep desire, decades before the word "feminism" was in the news, to see women treated equally with men. She saw through the double standard of the time that permitted men to do things that women would be ruined for doing. Her cause was sexual equality, and she was shrewd enough to know that it was perhaps the ultimate battleground, the most difficult cause of all. In addition to her extensive interviews of Mae West, Chandler also spoke with actors and directors who worked with and knew the star, the man with whom she lived for the last twenty-seven years of her life, as well as her closest assistant at the end of her life. Their comments and insights enrich this fascinating book. She Always Knew How captures the voice and spirit of this unique actress as no other biography ever has. |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Window into a soul...
Rating:
This by far is the most indept,insightful and well written biography I have read about Mae West. I've read practically every book written about this woman. This book gave a personal look into who she was an how she became 'Mae West'. This is a woman who was born into 'her time', 'place' and knew how to market her image without compromising her character...
Mae knew how to let you 'come up with the meaning' of the words she spoke....
Full of Factual Errors & Pedestrian Writing
Rating:
I'm researching Mae West's play The Drag, and within 5 pages devoted to this subject there are about five errors. Chandler apparently hadn't read the play herself or hadn't read it recently when she wrote her synopsis. This doesn't haven't to be a major fault. Who doesn't like good fiction? But the writing here lacks inspiration. It comes off as hackish.
1) Dr. Richmond and Judge Kingsbury aren't brothers-in-law, otherwise their children would be first cousins and couldn't marry.
2) Clair tells her friend Marion about her sex problems, not her Aunt Barbara.
And so forth.
I liked this biography
Rating:
Mae West was one of the most interesting women of the early- to mid-twentieth century. She knew what she wanted, and in a world dominated by men, she knew how to get it. This biography, written by veteran biographer Lyn Erhard, under the pen name of Charlotte Chandler, is an interesting view of Ms. West, having more of the feel of an autobiography. The author crams the book full of quotes from the great lady, making you feel like you are hearing her tell her life story to you face-to-face.
So, as you can tell, I liked this biography. Like, I said, in many ways it is like an autobiography, in that it tells Mae's story from her (no doubt biased) viewpoint, rather than attempting to be an expose or hard-hitting investigation. I like Mae West, and I really liked the way the book truly feels like her. Is it the best biography of Mae West, no, not really. But, is it a great book on Mae West, a hard-to-put-down read? Oh yeah!
(Review of She Always Knew How: Mae West, a Personal Biography)
Sad - The Life and the Book
Rating:
I won't claim to be an expert on Mae West, just a relatively serious fan who has enjoyed her movies since childhood and has read several of the bios about her. This new one has cemented a growing sadness regarding her life. Each disclosure seems to reveal a sad, lonely woman who was delusional about her looks in later years (come on, no sane 80+ year old believes they look the way they did at 28), and who needed to paint a picture of her life that makes most fairy tales seem realistic. I'd love to read a psychiatric analysis of what would drive someone to create such a persona. Glimmers of a real woman peak through occasionally, and I wonder if she was ever truly happy, despite all the assurances that she was exceedingly so. Don't get me wrong: Mae West was a true talent, a one-of-a-kind larger than life superstar. Nothing takes away from that. However, as I've grown older I've moved from an appreciation of her talents to a sense of sorrow over a life that seemed mostly empty and wasted, with decades spent re-living ancient victories, always hoping that the next triumph was just around the corner. And it never was.
While this picture of Mae West has become more clear with each new work on her life, this last book is as sad as the life it chronicles. I've rarely read such a poorly constructed and written book. A real mishmash, and as far from a serious biography as you could get. Even its entertainment value, aside from its worth as a scholarly work, is minimal due to the rambling nature and construction. I doubt an editor took one glance at it. Rather than repeating the other reviewers' comments on why this is such a poor work, I will say this certainly wasn't something worth waiting 30 years for. I haven't read any of Miss Chandler's other books, and if this is indicative of her skills, do not plan to do so.
PREPARE TO FALL IN LOVE!!
Rating:
Somewhere up there Miss Mae West is smiling. And our thanks go out to Charlotte Chandler - celebrity interviewer/author of eight previous books - for giving us this thoroughly enjoyable new look at one of America's most original and enduring icons of the stage and screen.
Built around interviews taped during the last year of West's life, this new publication offers us the opportunity to "hear" her words exactly as she spoke them, and at a time in her life from which no other such interviews exist. The value of this gift for West fans cannot be overestimated. If you want to hear the "Sin-sational" Miss Mae West tell the final version of her life story, as she would want you to know it - from birth in Brooklyn in 1893, to the heights of Hollywood fame and beyond - HERE SHE IS! And it just does not get any better than this, short of having been able to spend time in the Ravenswood with her!
Except for her mother and sister, women were not usually Miss West's first choice for company - and certainly not younger women doing interviews. The idea for Chandler's meetings, however, had been irresistibly suggested to West by director George Cukor, with whom she still hoped to make a film. It took a leap of faith for West to put her words into another woman's hands, but her trust has now been repaid ten fold. In this narrative, which reflects nearly the full 87 years of her life, Mae West's unaltered "voice" and personality, placed once again in her favorite place - "the spotlight", come through "alive" and brilliantly clear.
Additionally, Chandler's own personal gift for humor makes this book especially fun to read. Her interactions with Miss West, and descriptions of their time together, are bound to have the reader smiling, at the very least!
Did Miss West experience suffering in her life? Was she ever sad, frightened, lonely, or in doubt? Yes, I think we can be sure of that, but she did not believe in dwelling on the "negative". That was just not like "Mae West". And so, instead of stories of despair in this book, there are stories about Elvis Presley, Groucho Marx, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Beverly Sills, and many others - stories that West told about them, and stories they told about her. It's wonderful!
West, who neither smoked nor drank, LOVED men... and mirrors, limousines and diamonds, spiritualists and séances, "chop suey, sex, and my career", she said. She was kind, thoughtful, and often very generous to people, but above all else, she loved her "self" - her "creation" , which remained the unwavering focus of all her attention and lifetime of work. "I had to be prepared for the best that could happen.", she told Chandler. And she loved her fans, to whom she always - at least by mail - remained accessible, and for whom she personally signed each autograph requested. They were her "audience", and her love for them never diminished - yet she was also an intensely private person, carefully choosing her small circle of close friends. Mae West is a MYSTERY. That is the woman we learn about and meet here - unknowingly at the end of a very long life, but still positive and planning for more. How much of her story is her own "embroidery" is up to the reader to ponder. It is part of the puzzle, and part of her charm.
As you read this beautiful book, which I HIGHLY recommend, be prepared to fall in love with the eternal Miss West. Exposure to her makes that inevitable. "She Always Knew How - Mae West, a Personal Biography" is unlike any other window we have been given into the "world" of this legendary star. The subject was elusive, but the interviewer/author is "magic"! How fortunate for us.
BROWSE BY SUBJECT
- Audiobooks
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Health, Mind & Body
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel