Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Advance Praise for Patricia Bosworth’s The Men in My Life
“In this moving follow-up to her 1997 memoir, Anything Your Little Heart Desires, Bosworth comes into her own as a memoirist.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred)
“Looking back to her rampaging twenties, Bosworth chronicles how she repressed her grief and guilt, recklessly threw herself into harrowing situations, and embraced exhilarating opportunities, all of which she describes with stunning immediacy and valiant candor. . . . Lush with tales of Lee Strasberg, Marilyn Monroe, Gore Vidal, Elaine Stritch, Audrey Hepburn, and many more, and spiked with arresting observations about glamour and about toxic sexism and homophobia, Bosworth’s riveting memoir brings the covertly wild 1950s into startlingly close focus.”
—Booklist (starred)
“Bosworth recounts the glamorous highs and frustrating lows of trying to succeed as an actress, offering juicy anecdotes featuring a large cast of the actors, directors, and playwrights who comprised the important men in her young life. . . . A forthright memoir of pain and aspirations enlivened by sharp portraits of a host of colorful celebrities.”
—Kirkus
“‘You won’t be able to do it for a while, maybe not for a long time,’ Gore Vidal warned the young Patricia Bosworth, suggesting she write a memoir of her charmed, tragic early years. He was right. She now has and it’s a stunner, a searing, suspenseful meditation on acting, being, and the distance in between. Not every inner life can hold its own against the behind-the-scenes drama at the Actors Studio; Bosworth’s steals the show.”
—Stacy Schiff, author of The Witches
“What an emotional and remarkable journey! Bosworth is a dazzling writer—I came under her spell years ago when I read her biographies. Now, in her new book, Patricia has reached into the depths of her adventurous, sometimes terrifying life, to tell us a story that could not be fiction—too sad, too wildly happy at times, and in every way challenging. Bosworth tells us how it is to live a life of creativity and beauty when the hard times come, and when the good times roll. She has lived through both and come up shining and brilliant. Read this book! I loved it!”
—Judy Collins, author of Sweet Judy Blue Eyes
“I couldn’t stop reading this book. It’s terrific. There are fascinating characters throughout, and so much glamour and excitement, but also loss and tragedy. That unsettling combination fuels Patricia Bosworth’s amazing story.”
—Gay Talese, author of High Notes
“Honesty in writing is rare and precious. In telling us the previously untold story of her extraordinary life, Patricia Bosworth has added an important testament to the history of women. I read this book with tears in my eyes and a smile on my face.”
—Erica Jong, author of Fear of Dying
“This memoir is so passionate, so discerning, so emotionally textured. Set in the ’50s and early ’60s, when constricting beliefs and traditions battled an urgent need for authenticity and experiment, the young women of Bosworth’s generation were searching for their own destinies, fighting to do more than play supporting roles in the lives of powerful men. And yet, as she shows so poignantly, men like her brilliant father and her gifted, tragic brother were also trapped. This is the kind of memoir we need now: the story of a life that’s also the story of a culture.”
—Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland
“Graced with a talent for delving into the truths of creative lives, Patricia Bosworth has now taken the truth serum herself. The result is a powerful, gutsy, tender, and mesmerizing memoir, wherein Bosworth bravely restores her romantic past to the jagged intensity of the present tense.”
—Brad Gooch, author of Smash Cut
“Patricia Bosworth, one of our most accomplished biographers, has led a life that few could survive, including the suicides of her brother and father; an acting career marked by exhilarating highs and crushing lows; an abusive first husband, and many other heart-pounding and heart-destroying events recounted in this utterly absorbing memoir. Through it all, Bosworth remains ebullient, self-aware, even funny, and without dissembling. This is who she is, a bright spirit in love with life, whatever it throws at her.”
—James Atlas, author of My Life in the Middle Ages
“In The Men in My Life Patricia Bosworth, who has given us such fine biographies of Montgomery Clift, Diane Arbus, and Jane Fonda, turns her lens on her own twenty-something self, and on the men—and women—she encountered during those extraordinary years. The result is a moving, revealing, unsparing, and enthralling book.”
—Amanda Vaill, author of Hotel Florida and Everybody Was So Young
“A fascinating, vivid story. The Men in My Life is not only a page-turning self-portrait, but also a nuanced cultural history of America in the 1950s.”
—Phillip Lopate, critic and author of To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction
“As memoirs go, this one is TOPS. Vivid, beautifully written, evocative and SO refreshingly frank about sex.”
—Andre Bishop, artistic director of Lincoln Center Repertory Theatre
Also by Patricia Bosworth
Biography
Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman
Marlon Brando
Diane Arbus: A Biography
Montgomery Clift: A Biography
Memoir
Anything Your Little Heart Desires: An American Family Story
Credits
COVER DESIGN BY GREGG KULICK
Copyright
THE MEN IN MY LIFE. Copyright © 2017 by Patricia Bosworth. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Photographs are courtesy of the author unless otherwise credited.
Title page photograph © Paul Slade/Getty Images
ISBN 9780062287908
EPub Edition January 2017 ISBN 9780062287922
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON M4W 1A8, Canada
www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF, UK
www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
www.harpercollins.com
The Men in My Life Page 35