Now Available to Pre-Order

What a pleasant surprise! The other day I got an email from an old friend at one of the libraries in Prince Edward County where I used to work, congratulating me. Why, I wondered?

Apparently, my upcoming book is listed in the spring 2011 catalogue of books the Library Services Centre is calling Solid Sellers. Not just listed inside, but pictured on the front cover for everyone to see. Needless to say, that "made my day!" I'm hoping that solid seller moniker is prophetic.

Mary Pickford: The First and the Best

Anyone researching and writing the life of Mary Pickford, as I am, can't help but be struck by the number of FIRSTS she accomplished:

She is called the first star of American cinema,
the First Lady of the movies.
She was the first actress to make $1 million and
the first actor to have her name on a theatre marquee.
Mary was the first female movie star to fly in a plane in a movie,
the first female star to head her own independent movie company, and the first actor to achieve international fame and recognition among millions in the world.
She was truly the world's first Super Star.

So much about Mary's film career is mentioned in SUPERLATIVES:
She was the highest paid woman in the world in her time, making more money than the US president.

 She was the most powerful woman in the history of motion pictures,
the biggest box-office draw in the world, and the most famous woman in the world in her time.

She was the most popular and financially successful woman in screen history.

I hope you'll enjoy meeting her in Mary Pickford: Canada's Silent Siren, America's Sweetheart.

Watch for it in September!

Happy Valentine's Day

I keep a little, hardbound book where I save bits of poetry and prose that speak to me. Because today is Valentine's Day, I'd like to share this poem that I clipped some years ago. Unfortunately, I no longer have the author's name to pass on with it. It's not my work, but I'll call it Love Poem

Whiskers in the sink?
Why complain? It would be silly.
They belong to my guy.
Soggy towels on the floor?
I pick them up and say nothing.
Socks and shorts that didn't quite make the hamper?
I quietly put them where they belong.
Crumbs in the bed? Hey, where's my pillow?
Newspapers strewn all over the place
As he sits and watches hockey and baseball on TV.
But what do I care?
I am not alone --
That messy guy belongs to me.
He bought our house.
He loves our kids.
He zips me up and pats my behind.
He keeps me warm and smiles a lot.
He's faithful,
And he loves me.

To My Own, Special, Smiley-Eyed Guy.

A Mary Pickford Silent Movie: "The New York Hat," 1912.

This is the last picture Mary Pickford made with director D.W. Griffith at the Biograph Company in 1912. She was 20 years old. A silent movie, I think it's a clear illustration of Mary's remarkable ability to express emotion without using exaggerated gestures. Her career was just beginning.
Enjoy!

Writing the End

"I pleased my own generation. That's all that matters." (Mary Pickford.)

I've come to the end of Mary's story. This is proving to be the hardest part of the book for me to write. Mary Pickford's last years were not happy. When the age of silent films ended, and she had trouble adjusting to talkies, she tried to re-invent herself. She did some writing, turning out a couple of books, she spent some time doing radio broadcasts, and she worked tirelessly fundraising for her many charities.

But she was grieving the loss of her youth, and with it her adoring audiences. Her fans weren't interested in seeing "Little Mary" play more mature roles. She tried, but after two unsuccessful pictures, she bowed out.
 
From the first time she'd felt the love of the audience, as a tiny child on the stage at the Princess Theatre in Toronto, she knew it was something she needed. But the public wanted her to keep playing young girls, and that became impossible as the actress grew older.

If she had conquered talkies, and then been allowed to grow old in front of the camera, as her friends Lillian and Dorothy Gish had, things might have been different.

Instead, Mary retreated inside her beloved Pickfair where, starting to show signs of heart disease, she eventually she took to her bed. Her leg muscles atrophied to a point where she could no longer walk. She became a recluse, seeing only a handful of friends and family. And then there was the tragedy of her alcoholism, the old Pickford/Smith family curse.

How to write this part without excusing her excesses. A biographer must tell the truth. Mary was grieving the loss of her youth, her beauty, and the love of her life. Her husband Douglas Fairbanks Sr. had left her for a younger woman. One of her friends described the fifty-year-old Mary as extremely handsome. What woman, whose youthful beauty had been called "dazzling," would later want to be referred to as handsome?

I can't sugar-coat the truth. This is the way Mary's life ended. I am required to tell it as it was. But now I can go forward to record her legacy, all that Mary Pickford meant to the world of motion pictures, and of her philanthropic work, and I can end on a triumphant note.

Writing Because it Matters

There are a number of books about writing that sit on the shelf above my desk, books that I return to again and again. Now that I am working on writing a biography for the first time, I took another look at Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories from Real Life, by Philip Gerard. 

Gerard poses an important question for the writer of nonfiction: Why am I writing this? The answer should be, "because it matters."
It's the writer's job to show the reader why it matters to him, in hopes that it will begin to matter to the reader. That is my goal in writing about the life and times of Mary Pickford.  I want you to "give a darn!"

More specific to writing biography, Gerard reminds the writer that he cannot invent dialogue, nor can he present the inner life of characters. "A good biography is founded on truthfulness." 

This is one of my favourite quotes from Gerard's book: "Your writing is just black marks on the page until it happens in somebody else's head." 
Write on!

A Sneak Preview

I signed the contract with the publisher this week for a biography titled, Mary Pickford: Canada's Silent Siren, America's Sweetheart.

Ever since I first decided which Canadian woman would be the subject of my next book, I have immersed myself in everything Pickford.

The above illustration is a collage my eleven-year-old granddaughter created this afternoon, while she was showing me how to select and save images on the computer. The subject, naturally, is Mary Pickford.

It amazes me how easily today's youngsters adapt to the new technologies. I'm lucky that my grandchildren are willing to share their knowledge with me.