Whitney Houston: The Unauthorized Biography

by James Robert Parish

The author of The Hollywood Book of Death and Hollywood Divas focuses his attention on one diva in particular--Whitney Houston--revealing details of her rise to fame in the mid-1980s and her subsequent fall from grace at the hands of the tabloids in the mid-1990s.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2003

About the author

James Robert Parish, a former entertainment reporter, publicist, and book series editor, is the author of many published major biographies and reference books on the entertainment industry including Whitney Houston: We Will Always Love You; The Hollywood Book of Extravagance; It’s Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks; The Hollywood Book of Breakups; Fiascos: Hollywood’s Iconic Flops; The Hollywood Book of Love; Jet Li; The Encyclopedia of Ethnic Groups in Hollywood; The Hollywood Book of Death; Gus Van Sant; Whoopi Goldberg; Rosie O’Donnell’s Story; The Unofficial “Murder, She Wrote” Casebook; Today’s Black Hollywood; Let’s Talk! America’s Favorite TV Talk Show Hosts; Prison Pictures from Hollywood; Prostitution in Hollywood Films; The Great Cop Pictures; Ghosts and Angels in Hollywood Films; Pirates and Seafaring Swashbucklers on the Hollywood Screen; Gays and Lesbians in Mainstream Cinema; Hollywood’s Great Love Teams; and The Fox Girls. Mr. Parish is a frequent oncamera interviewee on cable and network TV for documentaries on the performing arts. The author resides in Studio City, California.

Reviews

[Kirppu · Rating 3 out of 5]

An average biography if quite repetitive. It was a bit weird that the last 10 years of Whitney's life were crammed into the last 20 pages but maybe she didn't have much going on then. Still, would've liked to have read more of the years and days leading up to her death. Also now that Robyn Crawford's book is out, I was craving details of her and Whitney's relationship but this book came out before anything was public. Might have to take a look into Crawford's book.

[Avery · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't like the idea of an unauthorized biography. Something seems not right about it and I didn't really like the majority of this. Plus it's sad that she is gone :,(

[Cassandra Montgomery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enlightening

I waa surprised to learn a lot more than what i thought i knew about her. You assume things, but this book really opened my eyes to the drug use, concerts cancelled, etc. It's a shame she gave her life to drugs and had to go out the way she did, but those things are choices. Apparently she made a lot of bad choices. The book was a great read and kept my interest the entire time.

[Philly Aesthete · Rating 4 out of 5]

This text isn't salacious at all. Parish mostly diplomatically skirts around the more indelicate gossip about Nippy's (Whitney) sexuality and drug use. The book was published in 2003, so her worst years (in terms of the drugs) were to come. I appreciated the full picture Parish provides of Cissy's (Whitney's mother) childhood, her struggles to cement herself as a solo performer in the early days, and John Houston's (Whitney's dad) rather itinerant job history. Parish provides great detail about how Nippy paid her dues and honed her voice in the early days while traveling to her mother's night club gigs and background vocal recording sessions. Parish also does a good job of culling together all Nippy's industry achievements. Those achievements were quite prodigious. Some of us have forgotten how many 'firsts' go beside her name in record books: the 1st African American actress to command $10 million a picture, the first woman to have her album debut at #1 on the Billboard Charts (her 2nd album, Whitney), the first and still only woman to sell 4 million copies of a single (I Will Always Love You) etc...Parish also does a great job of calling our attention to Nippy's often contentious interviews with the press. I, for one, had forgotten how much of a hilarious ball-buster she was in interviews and in soundbites at times. I don't know where that pretty, prim princess image of Nippy came from because she always used the most colorful, caustic language in the press. She kept it real at all times. Parish clearly has great affection for his subject, but he endeavors to draw a complete picture of her, warts and all. I appreciated putting this book in conversation with Kevin Ammons' Good Girl, Bad Girl. Ammons had a more birds-eye view of Nippy's inner circle and her touring life for about 6 years at the end of the 80's through the early 90's when he dated her then publicist, Regina Brown. Though some have called Ammons' book sleazy, much of what he says in it matches up with what we now know about Nippy and about those who were in her camp at that time.

[RainbowWriter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is as honest as Whitney was when she lived. I wanted to read this because I'm into R&B music and her death is still a fresh story. This book gives media's impression on Whitney and the second half of the book concentrates only on Whitney and Bobby's drug addiction and other scandals in her life. This biography did little to change my negative opinion on Whitney but in the middle of all negative information I got also positively surprised: Whitney had more than average intelligence with straight As at school. I wouldn't have believed her intelligence thanks to the stupid choices she made in her life. This book is worth reading for a true Whitney fan but it probably tells a little that we wouldn't know already. I'm looking forward to a Whitney biography written by her mother Cissy Houston but I've reason to doubt her version of events will be biased and this biography written by media's ankle will end up being more righteous read.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

the author was cautious I guess because he didn't want Booby B and his crew coming over for a midnight visit... Whitney was very shy and overcame lots of obstacles and the best part of the book for me was reading her words- clearly a no nonsense person who was a straight shooter most of the time. I think being a superstar can make anyone crazy and she hit it big a 22yrs.Mostly factual with a little spice, the author lost credibility for me when he says Diana Ross was in her thirties in 1992 for the movie Bodyguard. Are you for real ? Diana Ross was born in 1944. So consider the source folks.

[Louise Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

i t was vaguely interesting just seeing what kind of life she had as a child and struggled really throughout made me see how important having a strong family is especially a mother makes me also see how being rich famous does not stop u having a tragic life makes me glad to live life in the slow lane

[Corey Wys · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't decide if the author was non-biased or hated Whitney. He loved to focus on the worst of her rather than her accomplishments. Even if he did mention an accomplishment, he quickly added something negative that happened during said accomplishment. I guess negativity sells? He was also all over the place with his timeline. It got quite convoluted at points.

[Leanne Juarez]

Great

[Meinwen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have apologised to my book club!!!!

[Doris Raines · Rating 5 out of 5]

A. True. Queen. Love. You. Whitney. Doris

[Bernadette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found the statistic information on her recordings a little hard going.