Joan Crawford was one of the most incandescent film stars of all time, yet she was also one of the most misunderstood. In this brilliantlyresearched, thoughtful, and intimate biography, bestselling author Donald Spoto goes beyond the popular caricature—the abusive, unstable mother portrayed in her adopted daughter Christina Crawford’s memoir, Mommie Dearest—to give us a three-dimensional portrait of a very human woman,

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Draws on newly discovered transcripts of Joan of Arc's trial to offer insight into the factors that contributed to her remarkable achievements, the plausibility of the role of divinity in her mission to serve her country, and the factors that contributedto her discrediting and execution.

A new life.

Born in England to socially ambitious parents, Elizabeth Taylor was catapulted into child stardom and molded by MGM into the great violet-eyed beauty of postwar America. Along the way, without training or counsel, she became an award-winning actress, dazzling audiences everywhere with spectacular performances. Spoto explores the gripping story of her brutalizing six-month marriage to compulsive gambler and hotel heir Nicky Hilton, her romances with...

Chronicles the film producing career and personal life of Alfred Hitchcock.

"In Silence is an inquiry into the meaning, nature, history, quality, and effects of prayer, and considers particularly the various types of prayer that have engaged pilgrims of the spirit throughout the ages: prayer as petition, as forgiveness, as an expression of suffering, as abandonment, as serenity, as loving, as transformation, and as silence. It likewise considers the role of prayer in a number of different religions, both Western and Eastern,...

An illustrated biography of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.