The Woman Who Dared: The Life and Times of Pearl White, Queen of the Serials

In the early days of motion pictures—before superstars, before studio conglomerates, before even the advent of sound—there was a woman named Pearl White (1889–1938). A quintessential beauty of the time, with her perfectly tousled bob and come-hither stare, White's rise to stardom was swift; her assumption of the title of queen of American motion picture serials equally deserved.

Born the youngest of five children in a small, rural Missouri farm town, White first began performing in high sch...