Forever Young : The Life, Loves, and Enduring Faith of a Hollywood Legend ; The Authorized Biography of Loretta Young [Hardcover]

Joan Wester Anderson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Loretta Young defied the years better than any actress I can think of." -- Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 16, 2000

From the Publisher

The life story and faith journey of one of the last of the legends of Hollywood, Forever Young is an unforgettable, moving, funny, poignant account of a film and television star many admired for her grace, poise and beauty. Loretta Young's faith and determination come to life in this carefully researched biography of her life. For 30 years, Miss Young had refused overtures from biographers. In 1998, she met New York Times bestselling author Joan Wester Anderson and commented to her daughter-in-law Linda Lewis, "That's the woman I want to write the story of my life." When Linda queried Miss Young about the choice, her comment was, "Who better than a writer of angels and miracles to tell the story of my life?"

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Thomas More Publishing; First Edition edition (November 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0883474670
• ISBN-13: 978-0883474679
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #439,959 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I started writing when we bought a handyman-special house that didn't come with a handyman. We had four sons at that point (a daughter finally arrived a year after we moved) so I started magazine freelance-writing. Collected a lot of rejection slips but I also learned a lot about the industry. I was completely self-taught and have never taken a journalism course.

By lurches and mistakes, I added a second income to the family while staying at home. A friend and I, on a lark, did a book on household humor together, and we found a publisher right away. The first book led to a second, but then my co-writer went off to a real job at a university. I continued at home with the magazine articles, an occasional book (the books never sold very well) and a speaking sideline that got me out of the house occasionally.

In 1992, as I made plans to finish my career in writing, I did one last book, Where Angels Walk, which became a New York Times best seller, and is still on bookshelves and published in at least 18 languages lo! these past almost-20 years. I never did stop writing, and have just completed #8 in my angel/miracles series. I also have returned to my roots---with a humorous book on family life, Moms Go Where Angels Fear to Tread.

I'm very grateful to God for allowing me to do this kind of work. My father once said that a person who loves her job will never work a day in her life, and that is me. I hope you are a new reader. Please check my website (and many new angel stories) at http://joanwanderson.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At Long Last!, November 26, 2000

By 

Diana Schafer (Centerville, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Forever Young : The Life, Loves, and Enduring Faith of a Hollywood Legend ; The Authorized Biography of Loretta Young (Hardcover)

I never thought a biography on my hero would ever be printed and now that it has happened, I am not disappointed. It would be a difficult task for any writer to chronicle 87 years of anyone's life, but the life of one of Hollywood's most productive actresses would be a formidable if not almost impossible task for most authors. Joan Wester Anderson rose to the task; she presents Loretta in a straight forward no-nonsense manner. Joan captures the essence of a great lady who avoided most of the pitfalls of Hollywood while striving to live according to her faith, the one constant in her life.

You do not need to be a Loretta Young fan to enjoy this book. If you know nothing about Loretta Young, this book will probably lead you to acquire a couple of her movies or episodes of her Television shows to see the mesmerizingly beautiful actress for yourself. If you are an old fan of hers like me, it will bring back memories of a Sunday night in those innocent 50's when a beautiful lady opened her door to bring you a half-hour of entertainment with an uplifting theme.

Just like its subject, Loretta Young, who was both beautiful inside and out, "Forever Young" is both beautifully written--easy to read--and beautifully packaged. "Forever Young" would make a great Christmas gift for yourself or the reader in your family.

42 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Limited Scope, March 30, 2001

By 

Pajamazon (Illinois) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Forever Young : The Life, Loves, and Enduring Faith of a Hollywood Legend ; The Authorized Biography of Loretta Young (Hardcover)

I read this book primarily to learn more about Loretta Young the actress (as the cover states "A Hollywood Legend"), but found myself instead reading the story of a woman and her deep faith. While this is inspiring, and Young was indeed known and loved for her christianity, it isn't much of a movie star biography. It's obvious that Young chose Anderson knowing that the focus of her book would be religion and not really the story of her life. I think a better format would have been serialization in a magazine, rather than published as a biography.

While the author does relate the truth about Loretta's daughter with Clark Gable (Judy Lewis), she also makes backhanded assertions, like Spencer Tracy's daughter Susan telling Loretta, "There were only two women in my father's life. My mother, and you," in essence an attempt at de-legitimizing Tracy's long association with Katharine Hepburn.

I've never read this author's work before, but it does seem to me that she's got her own agenda going with stories of angels and miracles and spirituality. I really wanted more about Young's life in Hollywood and less about the religion, but this is not the book for that (and the cover is a bit misleading).

Bottom line: if you are a Loretta Young fan who wants to know more about her deep faith, this is the book for you. Hollywood fans, look elsewhere.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Soul. But book needed indepth, balanced approach, February 3, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Forever Young : The Life, Loves, and Enduring Faith of a Hollywood Legend ; The Authorized Biography of Loretta Young (Hardcover)

Certainly this book shows Loretta Young's best qualities, which are considerable. Still Joan Wester Anderson, the author (whose previous spiritual books I have enjoyed) does an injustice to herself and her subject. The author seems to have an agenda, promoting angels, inserting them, interpreting, according to her "angelic" philosophy of life. The author tries too hard to make miracles. She asserts that Ricardo Montalban miraculously came to meet Loretta's sister, the exact girl of his prior dreams and future wife. Yet other books show that Montalban had already met another of Loretta's sister, Sally, with whom he worked in Mexico. His friendship with that sister led quite naturally to meeting his beloved via natural, not supernatural, means of intervention. The book is written in a rather fawning, fanlike style, which is distracting. Also, many factual errors do occur, minor to be sure, but enough to unsettle the reader and create unnecessary suspicion about the author's perceptive abilities, and Loretta Young's true motives in life. (Also, for the author to assert that, due to Loretta's early good influence, stars like William Holden never were found to have a drinking problem was rather incredible!). Loretta's husband, Tom Lewis, and her daughter, Judy, are seen in too much of an unflattering light, as if the author were determined to please Ms.Young at all costs. I recommend your reading two well-written, thoughtful books on Loretta Young: one written by her daughter, Judy Lewis, called Uncommon Knowledge (1995) and a 1986 biography, Loretta Young: An Extraordinary Life, by Joe Morella and E. Epstein. Both these books are ruthlessly honest but not unkind, and both illustrate how Loretta and her daughter were caught in the circumstances of the times, whereby both needed to do what each felt was right. So I'm disappointed in this book, though I laud Loretta's courage in finally validating her daughter in acknowledging the truth of the latter's birth. Loretta Young really tried to do good in life, and I feel she deserves a more comprehensive treatment, bold enough to characterize her flaws, while illumining her radiant aspects.