A captivating and inspiring portrait of legendary actress Meryl Streep and her work, Queen Meryl explores the fearless icon's trailblazing roles in film, her feminist activism, and the indelible mark she's left on pop culture. Meryl Streep is the most celebrated actress of our time. She's a chameleon who disappears fully into each character she plays. She never tackles the same role twice. Instead, she leverages her rarified platform to channel a range of dynamic, complicated women--Joanna Kramer, Karen Silkwood, Julia Child, Margaret Thatcher, Katharine Graham--rather than limit herself to marginal roles for which other actresses must settle: Supportive Wife. Supportive Mother. Supportive Yet Utterly Disposable Love Interest. Streep will have none of that. The once-awkward, frizzy-haired suburban teen blossomed into a rising ingénue on the stage at Vassar College and the Yale School of Drama. She came of age during the women's movement of the '60s and '70s, and has worn her activism on her sleeve even when it was unfashionable. When she reached 40, the age when many leading ladies fade away, Streep plunged forward, taking her pick of parts that interested her and winning a pile of awards along the way. Meanwhile, she remained an unlikely box-office draw, her clout even managing to grow with age: The Devil Wears Prada, starring Streep as the Anna Wintour avatar Miranda Priestly, scored $326 million worldwide. Journalist and author Erin Carlson documents all of Streep's Oscars, accents, causes, memes, friendships, and feuds; also exploring the "off-brand" forays into action-adventure (The River Wild) and musicals (Mamma Mia!), and how Streep managed to sneak her feminism into each character. In the spirit of nontraditional bestsellers like Notorious RBG and The Tao of Bill Murray, Queen Meryl is illustrated by artist Justin Teodoro and filled with fascinating lists and sidebars, delivering joy in homage to its unique and brilliant subject.
Erin Carlson is the author of I'll Have What She's Having: How Nora Ephron's Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy and has covered the entertainment industry for The Hollywood Reporter and the Associated Press. Her work has appeared in Glamour, Fortune, and the Los Angeles Times, and she holds a masters in journalism from Northwestern.
In She Always Knew How, her wonderful new biography of legendary actress Mae West, acclaimed biographer Charlotte Chandler draws on a series of interviews she conducted with the star just months
In lively extracts from their letters to family and friends, John and Margaret, who also went by Peggy, describe the stormy years of their courtship, their bohemian lifestyle as a young married
Author and historian Anna Myers in this delightful short book, provides a gallery of extraordinary women swindlers, con artists and impostors. Some of the women you may even like
One of the greatest American singers and actresses of her generation looks back on a magical and turbulent life spanning a half century of theatrical history from the golden age of the Broadway
My Arizona Adventures is the true first-person account of an authentic American pioneer. When Tom Sanders came to Arizona's central highlands there was nothing there; there were no roads, no towns,
When Edie was first published, it quickly became an international bestseller and then took its place among the classic books about the 1960s. Edie Sedgwick exploded into the public eye like a comet.
No star burned more ferociously than Judy Garland. And nobody witnessed Garland's fierce talent at closer range than Stevie Phillips. During the Mad Men era, Stevie Philips was a young woman muscling
In June of 1957, Governor James Coleman stepped before the cameras of "Meet the Press" and was asked whether the public schools would ever be integrated. "Well, ever is a long time," he replied,
For more than five decades, Horton Foote, "the Chekhov of the small town," has chronicled with compassion and acuity the changes in American life -- both intimate and universal. His adaptation of
Before she died, Elizabeth Taylor claimed that previous biographers had revealed “only half of my story…I can’t tell the other half because I’d get sued.” In response
"Men who inherit great wealth are respected, but women who do the same are ridiculed. In The Silver Swan, Sallie Bingham rescues Doris Duke from this gendered prison and shows us just how brave,
Grammy Award–winning country music star Sara Evans’s inspirational story about her rise to stardom, her roundabout path to love, and how her faith brings daily joy no matter the
“A memoir with the fierce narrative force of an eastern Montana blizzard, rich in story and character, filled with the bone-chilling details of Blunt’s childhood. She writes without
In an exquisitely written memoir, Mia Farrow introduces us to the landscapes of her extraordinary life. Moving from her earliest memories of the walled gardens and rocky shores of western