Marion Davies; author: Fred Laurence Guiles; publisher: McGraw-Hill Book Company; 1972, first printing, hardback, dust jacket, photo illustrated, very fine condition. The frontspiece and following six pages have two very small circular horizontal indentations approximately 1 in. apart from each other (about the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen).

This is the first full-length biography of Marion Davies, one of the most controversial and mysterious women of our time. Ziegfeld Follies girl, movie star and mistress of William Randolph Hearst for over three decades, her story is the story of Hollywood's golden era, of the American Dream, of the struggle to find security in the wake of overwhelming success. Here is the first in-depth study of the woman who had as much power as the First Lady, who presided over mansions and castles, who had millions in jewels and art treasures and yet who, ironically enough, stammered when she spoke, was never able to marry the man she loved and spent the last years of her life as a recluse.

Written by Fred Lawrence Guiles, author of the best-selling "Norma Jean: The Life of Marilyn Monroe," this is an exhaustively researched biography, filled with Marion Davies' own recollections of her life, interviews with almost all of those who knew her, private correspondence, anecdotes and previously undiscovered documents. It is a vivid and compelling portrait: of Marion's childhood in Brooklyn, of her first attempts in show business, of her Broadway debut, of her rise to fame, of her deep and lasting relationship with one of the richest and most influential men America has ever known. And what emerges here should forever erase the image of Marion Davies as a "pretty but dumb blonde." She was, in fact, a star of enormous talent, a woman of great gaiety and generosity--a woman who loved passionately and who remained fiercely loyal despite the severe torment and suffering she continually sustained.

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