Stanwyck

by Axel Madsen

Barbara Stanwyck thrilled millions in scene after scene, picture after picture, over a six-decade career that took her from an impoverished childhood in the streets of Brooklyn to the pinnacle of Golden Age Hollywood. At once tough and vulnerable, straight-talking but emotionally elusive, she electrified every production in which she appeared, from Hollywood B-flicks to such classics as Stella Dallas, Double Indemnity, and television's The Thorn Birds. She was an early role model for women dissatisfied with the standard Hollywood heroine, and a tantalizing challenge to men who wanted more. Her honesty and authenticity resonate even more powerfully today - but her complete story has never before been told. Axel Madsen's Stanwyck is the first authoritative life of this fascinating and notoriously private star, who until now has eluded biographers. Madsen first interviewed Stanwyck in 1969 and over the years has exhaustively researched her life and career and interviewed scores of importa