Not the Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford, a Personal Biography

She was beautiful, talented, irascible, ruthless, vulnerable, and a true Hollywood legend. From abused child to dance hall entertainer to silent film actress, she went on to become one of Hollywood's screen goddesses with films such as Possessed (opposite Clark Gable, with whom she began a torrid off-screen affair), Grand Hotel, and Mildred Pierce, her Academy Award-winning film. Joan Crawford succeeded--and survived--through sheer determination, talent, invention and re-invention. Now, Charlotte Chandler, the acclaimed biographer of Ingrid Bergman (Ingrid), Bette Davis (The Girl Who Walked Home Alone), and Groucho Marx (Hello, I Must Be Going), gives us a revealing and often surprising portrait of Joan Crawford, much of it in her own words.