Kay Fwancis Books

Got my copy of CLASSIC IMAGES' February issue today, and one of the
two new books on Kay is advertised opposite Laura Wagner's book
column. For some insane reason, McFarland doesn't print the titles
of the books it features in this monthly ad, and I can't make out
the subtitle from the little dust-jacket picture, so all I can say
is that it's the one written by a male-female team of writers.

I seem to recall Frederica was going to order both books and provide
us with her assessment of them. Any progress on that, Freddy?


Jim

"James Roots" <ag904 RemoveThis @FreeNet.Carleton.CA> wrote in message
news:dsg5ad$b7$1@theodyn.ncf.ca...
> Got my copy of CLASSIC IMAGES' February issue today, and one of the
> two new books on Kay is advertised opposite Laura Wagner's book
> column. For some insane reason, McFarland doesn't print the titles
> of the books it features in this monthly ad, and I can't make out
> the subtitle from the little dust-jacket picture, so all I can say
> is that it's the one written by a male-female team of writers.
>
> I seem to recall Frederica was going to order both books and provide
> us with her assessment of them. Any progress on that, Freddy?
>
>
> Jim

I'm reading the Lynn Kear/Other Person book now: "Kay Francis, A Passionate
Life and Career." I finished "I Can't Wait to Be Forgotten" a couple of
weeks ago. So far I can say the Lynn Kear/Other Person book is better
written from an historical perspective; it's written more objectively and
more critically. O'Brien's book comes more from a fan's perspective,
although he's certainly made good use of Kay's diaries, and did excellent
interviews with people who knew Kay. He has better pictures, but
unfortunately they aren't well reproduced. So there are advantages and
disadvantages to both--as a Fwancis Compwetist, I must have both.

I will say, though, that I was quite miffed for a while over Kay's many
abortions. I have a proprietary interest in the Abortion Queen of
Hollywood, Virginia Rappe, and it seriously annoyed me that Kay seemed to
have outstripped Virginia in that arena. And not just outstripped her, but
outstripped her before breakfast. Then a friend pointed out that we can
never really know how many abortions Virginia had, since we don't know
things like start of menses, etc. I was SO relieved. Virginia's tiara is
safe.

Frederica