From the library of Bryan Forbes
DAVIS, Bette & STINE, Whitney. Mother Goddam. The Story of the Career of Bette Davis by Whitney Stine with a Running Commentary by Bette Davis. New York. Hawthorn Books Inc. 1974.
8vo. Finely bound in half green morocco with gilt rules over cloth covered boards, spine lettered and panelled in gilt on raised bands with gilt rules, all edges gilt; spine very slightly darkened; marbled endpapers; pp.[16] 374; mark on upper board which has caused a little fading to the cloth on the top edge, else a near fine copy.
First edition. Inscribed by Bette Davis to the film director, actor and writer Bryan Forbes and his wife Nanette Newman, "My Love to Nanette and Bryan. Wish a film with you were in this book. Bette". Also with Forbes's bookplate on front pastedown
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis is regarded as one of the most distinguished actresses in Hollywood history, being the first woman to ever receive a Lifetime Acheivement Award from the American Film Institute. In Mother Goddam she offers a running commentary of private insights of the movies in which she featured. In 1946, Bette Davis earned more than any other woman in the U.S. and as winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, she dominated cinema. She also garnered a reputation for being a hard-working, but combative, colleague; her perfectionist attitude often causing friction between studio executives and co-stars alike. Subsequently, she was nicknamed 'Mother Goddam' and as Whitney Stone writes in the dedication page to this layered biography, "There is only one dedication possible to this book- to Mother Goddam herself". It seems fitting that her comments interrupt the stream of Stone's narrative.
Steadfastly independent, (Bette would anchor herself throughout four volatile marriages, three children, and a historical catalogue of movies), her self-chosen epitaph perfectly encapsulates what could well have been a life mantra; “She did it the hard way.”
Whiney Stine was an expert on the subject of Bette Davis' life, having written many books on her career.
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