The wickedly candid New York Times bestesller that Ava Gardner dared
not publish during her lifetime--"the heartbreaking memoir of the
ultimate heartbreaker" (Philadelphia Inquirer).
Ava Gardner was one of Hollywood's biggest and brightest stars during
the 1940s and '50s, an Oscar-nominated leading lady who co-starred with
Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, and Humphrey Bogart, among others. But this
riveting account of her storied life, including her marriage to Frank
Sinatra, and career had to wait for publication until after her
death--because Gardner feared it was too revealing.
"I either write the book or sell the jewels," Gardner told coauthor
Peter Evans, "and I'm kinda sentimental about the jewels." The legendary
actress serves up plenty of gems in these pages, reflecting with
delicious humor and cutting wit on a life that took her from rural North
Carolina to the heights of Hollywood's Golden Age. Tell-all stories
abound, especially when Gardner divulges on her three husbands: Mickey
Rooney, a serial cheater so notorious that even his mother warned
Gardner about him; bandleader Artie Shaw, whom Ava calls "a dominating
son of a bitch...always putting me down;" and Frank Sinatra ("We were
fighting all the time. Fighting and boozing. It was madness. But he was
good in the feathers").
"Her story is a raw-nerved revelation. . . . A vivid portrait" (Chicago
Tribune). Witty, penetrating, unique in its voice, it is impossible to
put down--"A complete delight" (Philadelphia Inquirer).
