The Films of Joan Crawford
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"Love with Joan Crawford might be a strenuous business, perhaps a little difficult at times.  But well worth the run." -- James M. Cain (Author of Mildred Pierce)

 

Listed below are links to my book reviews of Joan Crawford biographies, autobiographies and novels that were made into JC movies.  Some of these reviews also appear on The Best of Everything Joan Crawford website.  Please note that this does not represent a complete book list.  I will be adding links as I obtain and read more works.  Books with "Joan mentions" will not be included, only those books that were either the basis for one of her films or where she or her work is the primary focus.  Also any book not available in English or adapted into a film not available, even in bootleg (as is the case with some silents), will not be reviewed until said work becomes accessible.  [NOTE:  See photo of Joan with book at the bottom of this page!]

FICTION
(Books Made Into Films, Etc.)

Above Suspicion by Helen MacInnes

The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe

Claustrophobia by Abbie Carter Goodloe (I Live My Life)

Daisy Kenyon by Elizabeth Janeway

Dancing Lady by James Warner Bellah

Flamingo Road by Robert Wilder

Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum

Humoresque by Fannie Hurst

Johnny Guitar by Roy Chanslor

Letty Lynton by Marie Belloc Lowndes

Love on the Run by Alan Green and Julian Brodie

Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain

Not Too Narrow...Not Too Deep by Richard Sale (Strange Cargo)

One Man's Secret by Rita Weiman (Possessed '47)

Our Dancing Daughters (Novelized) by Winifred Van Duzer

Out of the Dark by Ursula Curtiss (I Saw What You Did)

Pretty Sadie McKee by Vina Delmar

Queen Bee by Edna Lee

Rain by W. Somerset Maugham

The Story of Esther Costello by Nicholas Monsarrat

Sudden Fear by Edna Sherry

Turn About by William Faulkner (Today We Live)

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell

Why Should I Cry? by I.A.R. Wylie (Torch Song)

Within the Law by Marvin Dana (Paid)

FICTION
(Plays Made Into Films)

Miscellaneous Plays Made Into Films

NONFICTION
(Autobiographies, Biographies, Reviews, Etc.)

Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud by Shaun Considine

The Complete Films of Joan Crawford by Lawrence Quirk

Conversations with Joan Crawford by Roy Newquist

Crawford: The Last Years by Carl Johnes

Crawford's Men by Jane Ellen Wayne

Jazz Baby by David Houston

Joan Crawford (A Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies) by Stephen Harvey

Joan Crawford: Her Life in Letters by Michelle Vogel

Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography by Quirk & Schoell

Joan Crawford: The Raging Star by Charles Castle

Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Star by Alexander Walker

Joan Crawford:  Uma Homenagem by Walter Machado
This book is not available in English, to my knowledge.

Legends: Joan Crawford by John Kobal

My Way of Life by Joan Crawford

Noches de Joan Crawford:  12 Cuentos Argentinos by various authors
This book is not available in English, to my knowledge.

Not the Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford by Charlotte Chandler

A Portrait of Joan by Joan Crawford

MISCELLANEOUS

The Joan Crawford Murders by Peter Joseph Swanson

Joan Crawford Paper Dolls by Marilyn Henry

Joan Crawford Paper Dolls in Full Color by Tom Tierney

Mildred Pierced by Stuart M. Kaminsky

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According to Carl Johnes, Joan had a huge collection of books, always intent on self-improvement.  She called them her "friends" and was chagrined when a newspaper photographer slanted an article by choosing to photograph the very rare portrait of herself which was unobtrusively displayed behind a plant and her Oscar, rather than her books or the tiny figures she had collected from around the world which she cherished.  (See "Crawford:  The Last Years" review).  One can imagine her curled up in a chair or on a sofa in her home, reading away, as she apparently did!