Lillian Gish: A Life on Stage and Screen

With a theatrical career spanning nearly 100 years, Gish saw motion pictures evolve from flickers to blockbusters. Usually playing someone needing to be rescued or protected, her trademark delicacy and vulnerability belied a strong and complex woman whose fatherless childhood taught her frugality, love for her mother and her sister, Dorothy, and a distrust of men.

The author, who was her friend, chronicles the hardships, heartaches, and fierce determination that shaped her all her days. Wit...