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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
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!
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