Customer Reviews

Joan Crawford: Her Life in Letters

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I was terribly disapointed in this book. I have read just about every book about Crawford, and a new one had me very excited - especially when it was about her legendary "letters".

The first issue I had with the book was the fact that the author has so many facts wrong - from the profession of Joan's father (he was NOT a "baker", LOL) to even simple technical information like the name of her first role in a film (which could have easily been checked at any number of websites in about five seconds).

That's also the second issue - the book has tons of material that has been on the Internet for quite some time. Many of the letters in this book I had read before on Joan websites that catalog them. It was disapointing that it didn't feel like the author had gone beyond visiting websites and copying them down into a book.

The only highlight really was the brief introduction by Casey LaLonde, Joan's grandson; hopefully we will hear more from him and his family in the future - I only hope that next time they collaborate on a more meticulous work with an author that includes facts, research, and proofreading that this book seems to lack.

Buyer Beware

Before you spend your money buying this book you should know that:

1) It [appears that it] has not been proofread
2) There are inaccurate facts sprinkled throughout the book that any fan of Joan Crawford will recognize immediately (what fan doesn't know the name of Joan's first picture?)
3) A great many of the letters are available for free viewing at more than one fan website, and can be seen in their entirety, rather than transcribed portions

If historical accuracy, original material, and literate writing are important to you, you will be disappointed.

If, as a fan of Joan Crawford, owning copies of these freely available letters in book form overrides mis-typed words and facts that you know are wrong, then you will not be disappointed.

I gave this book one star for the following reasons. When I buy a book, I expect that its author will have had the respect for his or her readers to have put out an edited and proofread product. This book has far more than a few typos (not "typo's"). It is rife with incomplete sentences and inconsistent and/or incorrect punctuation. Language, grammar, words, sentence structure, spelling, etc., are a writer's tools of trade, so it's a puzzle why this book is such a mess. Even self-published books must meet some standards. Joan Crawford's letters prove that she used and respected the rules of literate writing and, if she was the perfectionist she was reputed to have been, I can only believe she would scorn this book. It baffles me how her ardent fans can condone it. Surely they should demand better for their beloved Joan Crawford.

When I first heard about this book I have to admit to wishing I had thought of the idea myself as it has considerable merit. Then I heard that none of the publishing houses it was submitted to would touch it. That set off some alarm bells.

I will not point the finger at the typos - the vanity press should have caught these. However, all the many factual errors and misleading statements such as Joan rejecting the role of Karen in From Here to Eternity when there is overwhelming evidence that she was fired due to her wanting the film to be more about her and less about the war (some have said she was a bit too arrogant after her success in Sudden Fear). There are many others.

Also, I have to admit to being disappointed in nearly all the photos (only the one from the never released film Tide of Empire holds any real interest) and the atrotious quality of the paper. The pages will be yellow within 5 years.

Vogel seems unable to weave even a basic narrative; provide us with facts; or discern the important from the superfluous. While I applaud her efforts, the whole thing smacks of the amateur hour. And all that padding??? A few causal mentions about stars being stalked would have been more than sufficient.

[...]

Whew. When this self-published book first came out earlier this summer, everyone on the Joan Crawford message boards was up in arms about it. Not-so-oddly, those who seemed to have donated something like pictures to the book were full of praise, while those who had no stake in the book were rather dismayed by its poor quality and numerous factual errors.

I thought I'd wait a while for the tempest to die down before getting it and/or saying anything about it...

The book's a cheaply done, [...] embarrassment to Joan Crawford AND biography in general. The focus of the book is the letters: Most of them are inane and don't give insight into the woman, along the lines of "Thank you, dear, for the sweet card." There are perhaps 5 or 6 insightful letters out of the 100 or so, and these are [...] from a website that I know of that has had the letters up for months before this book ever came out. (Uncredited in the book, I might add.)

The book is also sloppily done overall: Words are misspelled left and right, facts about Crawford's life are wrong, there's no index, no photo credits, no...No one in charge. It's like the author came across some letters online, then a lightbulb went off in her head: [...] No one seems to have edited the introduction or any of the non-letter text. And sections seem to be just slapped onto the book for padding, like the "Celebrity Stalker" and "Joan's Meatloaf" segments...Huh? (As for the "Stalker" section, don't get your hopes up about something unknown about Joan. There's nothing about Joan there, just a lot about other modern-day celebrities. What this has to do with Crawford, I could not tell you.) [...]

I adore Joan Crawford very much because she was so talented and entertaining and kind-hearted and was always incredibly generous. Joan Crawford also invented the art or re-invention half a century before Madonna was a household name. I've seen all her movies and read countless books on Joan (including her own autobiography) and I feel that Michelle Vogel's "Joan Crawford Her Life In Letters" is one of the very best.

Joan Crawford was so good to her fans in fact that she wrote to them, not just the standard photo, but actual letters. This book chronicles many of the letters that Joan wrote to her fans, her associates, and her friends spanning over five decades (from the 1920's until the 1970's). A lot of people who don't really know about Joan Crawford think that "the real" Joan Crawford is more like the characters she played in "Queen Bee" or "Harriet Craig." But that couldn't be further from the truth. Yes, Joan did want to always get the last word. And, yes she was very opinionated and headstrong. But she was also very kind and polite, and she really cared what her fans and the public thought of her. I would say that she is more like her character in "Mildred Pierce" or "Esther Costello," a tireless workhorse who will stop at nothing to accomplish her goals. That was the impression this book posed on Joan's image.

There is also a lot of wonderful photos in this book. Again, I believe that most people have forgotten how truly beautiful Joan's looks were. My favorite picture was the one on page 86 of Joan (taken in the 1940's) happily posing with her fans on the street (perhaps that is where she felt most comfortable?). Joan would never turn down a fan's request for a photo or an autograph no matter the circumstance. She knew that she was always "Joan Crawford." And she also loved the public's adoration.

The book is a total of 219 pages, but Joan's letters are completed on page 168. The author also includes several informative chapters (at the end). I really enjoyed the chapter about graphonalysis. The author sent some of Joan's letters to be looked at by a writing expert, and the review was candidly correct (even though the expert did not know she was looking at Joan Crawford's letters.)

This book is a wonderful tribute to a kind and very successful lady. Joan would be very proud that she was remembered in such a fond light.

I purchased this book because I am a fan of Joan Crawford. It is a fun read which covers,(through her letters) most of her career. There are even a couple of her recipes in the book. This is not another biography. It is simply many years of Joan's devotion to her public. Which was one of the reasons her career lasted as long as it did.

A bunch of letters copied from online. Okay, but what do you do with them? Author Vogel doesn't do anything but slap them down on pages and create a lot of filler to go with them: a meatloaf recipe (!), a completely unrelated section on "celebrity stalkers." And somehow she got Joan Crawford's grandson to write an introduction, which was only very mildly interesting.

Vogel's original contribution to the book (that is, the part aside from Joan's letters) was an introduction that attempts to give some insight into Joan's career, life, etc. I've only read it once, but already counted 6 or 7 factual errors. And it's poorly written to boot.

(...) It's poorly written, and the quality of the pages and photos is poor, as well.

I have never read a more poorly written book. The letters themselves are fascinating and well written, but good heavens, Ms. Vogel's punctuation will stop you in your tracks.

It is impossible to follow through an entire paragraph without having to backtrack a bit to figure out what the writer is trying to say.

Try this sentence, regarding the stalker of a male TV star: "Her demands were that he leave his wife for her, if he, didn't she vowed his career would fade away." It's kind of like a good band with a lousy drummer.

There are the usual errors, too, such as referring to one person as "they," and to that one person's qualities as "theirs." There is "she's" for "she has."

As for apostrophes, I could faint. Ms. Vogel's rule seems to be, "If it ends in an 's,' put an apostrophe in front of the 's.'" No exceptions. Butcher's, baker's, candlestick maker's. Oy.

Comically, the author sometimes reports that Crawford received "a" letter from more than one person, making it seem like her high-powered friends got together to write and sign one letter. Maybe George Cukor had the pencil that week.

There are some cute errors, too. The author seems unaware that in a monogram, the first letter of one's last name appears as the second of three letters. When quoting from a letter written during Crawford's marriage to Phillip Terry, she describes the mongrammed stationery as, "JTC - Joan Terry Crawford." If proofreading skills are lacking, can't common sense prevail?

The author does access some interesting first-hand information from Crawford's friends. Even the most devoted Crawfordphile might find a few photos and quotes he hasn't seen before.

This book is essential for us Crawford collectors. However, the mistakes on almost every page ruin the flow of the text. It's like riding a bicycle with a chain that skips.

I'm glad to see letters from Miss Crawford to show another side of her but alot of the letters are just chit-chat and don't say that much of interest. There's also a problem with the facts here. I know a little about Miss Crawford, well more than a little, and there's so much that's just not correct. (Some people allready mentioned specifics below so I won't repeat them.) The introduction from Joan's grandson was interesting to read. But overall you can tell that not alot of time and effort went into the book as far as the facts and writing. (I've also read most of these same letters on-line so I was kind of hoping for different letters from the ones I had allready seen.)