Dark Victory

The Life of Bette Davis

Ed Sikov

Holt Paperbacks

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The legendary Hollywood star blazes a fiery trail in this enthralling portrait of a brilliant actress and the movies her talent elevated to greatness

 

In Dark Victory, noted film critic and biographer Ed Sikov paints the most detailed picture ever delivered of Bette Davis, the intelligent, opinionated, and unusual woman who was—in the words of a close friend—“one of the major events of the twentieth century.” Drawing on new interviews with friends, directors, and admirers, as well as archival research and a fresh look at the films, this stylish, intimate biography depicts Davis’s personal as well as professional life in a way that is both revealing and sympathetic.

 

With his wise and well-informed take on the production and accomplishments of such movie milestones as Jezebel, All About Eve, and Now, Voyager, as well as the turbulent life and complicated personality of the actress who made them, Sikov’s Dark Victory brings to life the two-time Academy Award–winning actress’s unmistakable screen style, and shows the reader how Davis’s art was her own dark victory.

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Book Excerpts

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Chapter One

EARLY SKIRMISHES

She was a lifelong saver of things: clippings, thank-you notes, family snapshots, daybooks, opening-night telegrams, marketing lists, studio stills, scripts. Here is her baby book, carefully archived, the earliest private record of a most public life:

An angular father holds a baby swathed in an immense, .owing blanket; Ruth Elizabeth Davis is four days old.

Her baby gifts are itemized in a florid, practically indecipherable Victorian hand.

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Praise for Dark Victory

“Mr. Sikov . . . is both a respected scholar and a delicious gossip . . . Perceptive . . . Essential.”—The New York Times

“A valuable guide to an essential career.”—The Washington Post Book World

“Perceptive and superbly written.”—Publishers Weekly

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About the Author

Ed Sikov

Film critic Ed Sikov is the author of the critically acclaimed On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder and Mr. Strangelove: A Biography of Peter Sellers. He has taught at Columbia University, Haverford College, and Colorado College, and lives in New York.

Ed Sikov

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Available Formats and Book Details

Dark Victory
The Life of Bette Davis
Ed Sikov

Trade Paperback

Trade Paperback
Henry Holt and Co.
Holt Paperbacks
September 2008
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780805088632
ISBN10: 0805088636
5 1/4 x 8 inches, 512 pages, Includes sixteen pages of pictures
$19.00
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Hardcover

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Hardcover
Henry Holt and Co.
October 2007
Hardcover
ISBN: 9780805075489
ISBN10: 0805075488
6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches, 496 pages, 1 16-pg. insert
$30.00

e-Book Agency

Learn more about this edition
e-Book Agency
Henry Holt and Co.
October 2007
e-Book Agency
ISBN: 9781429921954
ISBN10: 1429921951
6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches, 496 pages, Includes sixteen pages of pictures
$9.99
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