DAVIS, Bette ( commentator ); Whitney STINE. Mother Goddam. The Story of the Career of Bette Davis … with a Running Commentary …

DAVIS, Bette ( commentator ); Whitney STINE. Mother Goddam. The Story of the Career of Bette Davis … with a Running Commentary …Inscribed by Davis to Bryan Forbes and Nanette Newman DAVIS, Bette (commentator); Whitney STINE. Mother Goddam. The Story of the Career of Bette Davis with a Running Commentary New York: Hawthorn Books. 1974. 8vo. Finely bound in half green morocco by Asprey & Co., spine lettered and panelled in gilt, all edges gilt; marbled endpapers; pp. [8], 374 (with in text photographs throughout), [4, (blank)]; spine very lightly faded, slight markings to upper

Inscribed by Davis to Bryan Forbes and Nanette Newman

DAVIS, Bette (commentator); Whitney STINE. Mother Goddam. The Story of the Career of Bette Davis … with a Running Commentary … New York: Hawthorn Books. 1974.

8vo. Finely bound in half green morocco by Asprey & Co., spine lettered and panelled in gilt, all edges gilt; marbled endpapers; pp. [8], 374 (with in-text photographs throughout), [4, (blank)]; spine very lightly faded, slight markings to upper board’s leather panel to spine, fading to cloth; near fine; authorial inscription “My love to | Nanette and | Bryan [smiley face]. | Wish a film with | you were in this | book! | Bette” in blue ink to half-title (see below), bookplate of Brian Forbes to the front pastedown.

First edition, a presentation copy warmly inscribed by Bette Davis to the film director Bryan Forbes and his wife, the actress, Nanette Newman.

Regarded as one of the greatest figures of classical Hollywood cinema, Ruth Elizabeth “Bette” Davis was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. In Mother Goddam, she offers a running, often unfiltered commentary to Whitney Stine’s account of her life. By 1946, she was the highest-paid woman in the United States, and as a two-time Academy Award winner she dominated American cinema. Her perfectionism also earned her a reputation as a formidable, at times combative, colleague, giving rise to the nickname “Mother Goddam”. As Stine writes in the dedication to this layered biography: “There is only one dedication possible for this book – to Mother Goddam herself”. It is fitting that Davis’ own remarks punctuate and interrupt Stine’s narrative. Stine was a leading authority on Davis’ life and career, having written several books on the subject.

Provenance: From the library of Bryan Forbes and Nanette Newman. Although they did not collaborate professionally, Bette Davis and the couple formed a close, personal friendship over the course of their film careers.

SKU: 2121201