Leaving Home
A Hollywood Blacklisted Writer's Years Abroad
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $28.99
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- $28.99
Publisher Description
Anne Edwards is the author of several bestselling biographies of notable figures, including film stars Judy Garland, Vivien Leigh, and Katharine Hepburn, as well as Queen Mary and Gone with the Wind novelist Margaret Mitchell. A fastidious researcher and accomplished writer, Edwards received a Pulitzer prize nomination for her book Early Reagan: The Rise of an American Hero.
In this new memoir, Edwards turns the spotlight on herself, chronicling her 20-year exile from the United States from the 1950s until the early 1970s. After working for MGM as a junior writer, Edwards sold two original screenplays and was employed as a story editor on a television program. An attack of polio left her physically compromised and struggling to make ends meet, so the divorced mother of two left her homeland to find work in Europe. After arriving in London, she was able to find writing jobs under an assumed name, along with her expatriated colleagues.
Leaving Home is a personal story about a young mother and her two small children, but it is also about the many famous—and not so famous—people whose lives intertwined with theirs: Judy Garland, John Garfield, Rod Serling, Norman Mailer, Greta Garbo, and several others. This is an intimate story of a woman who refused to be subdued by her circumstances and determined to rebuild her life in the wake of McCarthyism. It is also a story about a woman who found and lost love and will appeal to any readers wanting to learn more about Hollywood history during one of its darkest periods.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
During the McCarthy era, Edwards (whose Early Reagan: The Rise of an American Hero was nominated for a Pulitzer) fled to Europe, along with numerous other Hollywood writers who suffered persecution. From 1954 until the early 1970s, Edwards raised her two children and wrote under an assumed name. Though the majority of the narrative focuses on her years abroad, Edwards deftly weaves in her fascinating family history. From an early age, the author was immersed in the Hollywood environment. At 17, Edwards wrote a standout high school play, landing her a position as a junior writer for Metro Goldwyn Mayer studio in Hollywood. Her uncle owned the famous Chasen's restaurant, frequented by the writers and actors of the movie industry. Her extended family included notables such as W.C. Fields, James Stewart, Frank Capra, and John Barrymore. She resided in London, Switzerland, and the South of France before returning home. Edwards lards her lush memoir with scrumptious details recalling the locations she lived, her romances, and encounters with celebrities. Yet she never neglects the meat of her story the devastating effect of blacklisting on her life and other McCarthy-era expatriates.
