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Frances Farmer: Shadowland
Berkley edition April 1982 pocketbook by Mcgaw-Hill Book Company
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 1978
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
October 20, 2016
This "biography" was the basis for the movie "Frances" in the 1980s (for which Jessica Lange won an academy award). William Arnold sued the movie's producers because he claimed that they violated the copyright on his novel (you read that right: novel). Here's where things get interesting: during the trial Arnold testified that much of the "biography" was "fictionalized" (a key part of his lawsuit, because biography can't be copyrighted). Please go the Jeffrey Kauffman's fine website, Shedding Light on Shadowland (http://jeffreykauffman.net/francesfar...) for an exact parsing of truth and fiction.
As far as I know, there are three books extant that claim to provide the real story of Frances Farmer's life, and all of them are in some way compromised: 1) Will There Really Be a Morning (the "autobiography" that is a frustrating farrago of fact and fiction, FF's fine writing, and Jeanira Ratcliffe's purple prose), 2) Shadowlands, qv supra, and 3) Looking Back in Love, by Edith Farmer Elliott, which is a well-meaning revision of Frances's story that unfortunately tries too hard to sweep FF's real life dirt under a bland rug of euphemism and evasion. Believe it or not, Patrick Agan's The Decline and Fall of the Love Goddesses contains the largest published selection of FF's writing. It's worth purchasing his book for that info alone. In the letters, you can see that FF is a fine writer indeed. It's a shame she didn't pursue a career in writing instead of acting.
As far as I know, there are three books extant that claim to provide the real story of Frances Farmer's life, and all of them are in some way compromised: 1) Will There Really Be a Morning (the "autobiography" that is a frustrating farrago of fact and fiction, FF's fine writing, and Jeanira Ratcliffe's purple prose), 2) Shadowlands, qv supra, and 3) Looking Back in Love, by Edith Farmer Elliott, which is a well-meaning revision of Frances's story that unfortunately tries too hard to sweep FF's real life dirt under a bland rug of euphemism and evasion. Believe it or not, Patrick Agan's The Decline and Fall of the Love Goddesses contains the largest published selection of FF's writing. It's worth purchasing his book for that info alone. In the letters, you can see that FF is a fine writer indeed. It's a shame she didn't pursue a career in writing instead of acting.
July 2, 2014
Arnold's book hits its stride about 2/3 through when he gets on the trail of the Seattle-based judge and psychiatrist who were responsible for legally stripping Farmer of her civil rights and committing her to Western State Hospital, where she stayed five years and sustained no doubt horrific abuse. Arnold makes a case, though not a deeply wrought one, for the committal being the revenge of Seattle's conservative elite upon Farmer, who they felt had embarrassed the city once too often with her atheism, praise for the Soviet Union, and general vibe of anti-authoritarianism. The rest is so skimpy and fleeting that it reminds you less of a book than of an extended weekend magazine piece (Arnold was a journalist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer). Arnold claims at various points and places to have interviewed "many" people who knew Farmer, either in Seattle, in Hollywood, in Indianapolis, in the mental hospital, or even during a brief Mexican sojourn. He paraphrases what he claims the "many" told him, but there are perhaps fewer than a half-dozen named informants and even fewer direct quotes. Why anyone would do the extensive traveling and interviewing Arnold claims to have done and given the resultant testimony such short shrift is perplexing, and frustrating. But the book reads fast, and though it's written with an (unacknowledged) agenda, it's not insulting to the intelligence; it simply requires a critical reading, and as a work of myth-making whose myths are still believed by many, it has historical importance. Shadowland is only a starting point for the curious; see, e.g., http://jeffreykauffman.net/francesfar... for a refutation.
October 22, 2015
I knew the basic outline of this story, but this is one of those things I never got around to when it was new even though a certain professor recommended it to all his students. The thing that strikes me about it now is how strongly the narrative resembles the film "Kurt and Courtney." Basically Arnold, a journalist who also acts as "gumshoe" detective, tries to piece together a possible conspiracy by interviewing people who mostly do not want to talk (and some of the people who claim to have information seem a bit off). I am guessing this similarity is intentional on the part of the filmmaker since Kurt Cobain wrote a song called "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle" and he has supplanted her as the city's most famous tragic martyr.
Despite the untrustworthiness of some of his sources, there was certainly a lot of arrogance on the part of the psychiatry profession in the 1940s who would do anything to appear omnipotent and infallible (even though the treatments they thought nothing of using like "Insulin Shock," "Electroshock," "Hydrotherapy" and "Lobotomy" are viewed as Medieval torture today). When combined with a genuine witch hunt against Communism in the Seattle area (led largely by Farmer's own mother as well as the judge at her insanity hearing who was also a notorious Red hunter), it's pretty clear that she was more likely the victim of Philistines who viewed her as "negative."
Despite the untrustworthiness of some of his sources, there was certainly a lot of arrogance on the part of the psychiatry profession in the 1940s who would do anything to appear omnipotent and infallible (even though the treatments they thought nothing of using like "Insulin Shock," "Electroshock," "Hydrotherapy" and "Lobotomy" are viewed as Medieval torture today). When combined with a genuine witch hunt against Communism in the Seattle area (led largely by Farmer's own mother as well as the judge at her insanity hearing who was also a notorious Red hunter), it's pretty clear that she was more likely the victim of Philistines who viewed her as "negative."
July 18, 2022
A very fast read, and entertaining, but take a step back and reconsider. Arnold himself claimed the material was "fictionalized" during court proceedings (was he telling the truth about lying or just trying to squeeze some money out of the movie producers?).
The author does try and insert himself into the story ("I was desperately searching for ...") and at other times seems to know everything that was going on in Frances Farmer's head. He comes up with the lobotomy theory and then gathers all his other information around that seed crystal.
Two suspicious stars.
The author does try and insert himself into the story ("I was desperately searching for ...") and at other times seems to know everything that was going on in Frances Farmer's head. He comes up with the lobotomy theory and then gathers all his other information around that seed crystal.
Two suspicious stars.
March 26, 2023
After her success in the hit 1936 movie Come and Get It, the 23 year-old Frances Farmer was as important in Hollywood as the other leading ladies of the day - Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert and Marlene Dietrich - but have you ever heard of her ? In the mid 1970's newspaper reporter William Arnold hadn't either, and was shocked after seeing the film that a woman of such star power could have disappeared so completely from public knowledge. It turned out that she had died fairly recently in 1970, and Arnold's Spidey sense told him to check further into her life. What he found was the basis for his biographical book Shadowland.
Farmer grew up in suburban Seattle. She became the center a city-wide controversy while still in high school after writing an award-winning essay entitled "God Dies", in which she stated her doubt that a supreme being would allow the tragedies that we see every day. Those who knew her at that time remember her as a girl who was "brutally honest". Then again in college she became so controversial as to be nationally famous. She won a subscription contest sponsored by the school newspaper which was trying to focus attention on student support for a radical labor movement. The prize was a paid trip to the Soviet Union, to meet with officials there and learn about how communism was helping the country.
When she returned she turned her attention back to acting, and received good reviews for performances in the New York theater scene. From there she attracted the attention of Hollywood and successfully transitioned into movies. Farmer was very nonmaterialistic, and donated large sums of money to causes dear to her, including the migrant farm workers situation.
Unfortunately, her rough personality rubbed people the wrong way, and her career and life went steadily downhill. Arnold chronicles the downfall, but also spends time documenting the shocking legal power of psychiatrists during the day, and the abuses to which she was subjected. Apparently a large group of psychiatrists exerted a concentrated politically motivated effort to commit "undesirables" to insane asylums from the 1930's to the 1960's.
Farmer grew up in suburban Seattle. She became the center a city-wide controversy while still in high school after writing an award-winning essay entitled "God Dies", in which she stated her doubt that a supreme being would allow the tragedies that we see every day. Those who knew her at that time remember her as a girl who was "brutally honest". Then again in college she became so controversial as to be nationally famous. She won a subscription contest sponsored by the school newspaper which was trying to focus attention on student support for a radical labor movement. The prize was a paid trip to the Soviet Union, to meet with officials there and learn about how communism was helping the country.
When she returned she turned her attention back to acting, and received good reviews for performances in the New York theater scene. From there she attracted the attention of Hollywood and successfully transitioned into movies. Farmer was very nonmaterialistic, and donated large sums of money to causes dear to her, including the migrant farm workers situation.
Unfortunately, her rough personality rubbed people the wrong way, and her career and life went steadily downhill. Arnold chronicles the downfall, but also spends time documenting the shocking legal power of psychiatrists during the day, and the abuses to which she was subjected. Apparently a large group of psychiatrists exerted a concentrated politically motivated effort to commit "undesirables" to insane asylums from the 1930's to the 1960's.
January 23, 2008
it all started with a song by everything but the girl i heard in the late 80s. then i saw the movie about her life.
i'm kind of obsessed with frances farmer. i'd give this book 5 stars but arnold's 'facts' are more conjecture than truth. of course, i only found that out in hindsight. truth is, i liberated this book from my college library (bad dix) and read it about 15 times. when i was in new york in '94 for the beat writers' conference, i went to about 4 libraries to research farmer's life. i made about one million dollars worth of copies, which were sacrificed to a man-made disaster in '05.
read 'will there really be a morning' and see the movie 'frances' to get the full distorted picture of her life. regardless of the untruths, it's clear that farmer was beautiful, intelligent, daring, radical, and persecuted because of it.
ask me about the late night bizarro conversation i had with a pre-botox courtney love about farmer.
i'm kind of obsessed with frances farmer. i'd give this book 5 stars but arnold's 'facts' are more conjecture than truth. of course, i only found that out in hindsight. truth is, i liberated this book from my college library (bad dix) and read it about 15 times. when i was in new york in '94 for the beat writers' conference, i went to about 4 libraries to research farmer's life. i made about one million dollars worth of copies, which were sacrificed to a man-made disaster in '05.
read 'will there really be a morning' and see the movie 'frances' to get the full distorted picture of her life. regardless of the untruths, it's clear that farmer was beautiful, intelligent, daring, radical, and persecuted because of it.
ask me about the late night bizarro conversation i had with a pre-botox courtney love about farmer.
March 3, 2021
A disturbing look at the abuses of psychiatric medicine, and how it destroyed Farmer because she was a strong willed woman. Pretty rough.
November 11, 2024
Actress Frances Farmer is one of the three or four most famous people to ever emerge from the Seattle area. Her tragic career is chilling to contemplate due to glaring lacuna in the narratives and—as in the case of mental illness or disputed diagnoses of mental illness—our lack of ability to objectively view the behavior that caused all the fuss. Although much has been disputed in William Arnold’s 1979 book, most specifically, the lobotomy episode, Arnold asserts that Frances Farmer was basically punished by a patriarchal society for being an opinionated, erratic women with her views and behavior antagonizing studio heads. Arnold basically concludes that, had Farmer been male, her behavior would not have led to incarceration and confinement in a mental hospital; his narration, with a bit of seventies glitz and cheese, has Hollywood shunning Farmer for her views and then shunting her to law enforcement, psychiatric care facilities, and, eventually, her parents, mainly to crush her will, i.e. as punishment. The psychiatric industry, forever under a scrutinizing glare for abuses throughout this era, does not come off well; nor does it in Farmer’s autobiographical accounts of her years in captivity.
Some key moments from her early biography, ably portrayed in the 1982 film “Frances,” some of which was filmed on location in West Seattle and downtown, starring Jessica Lange: In 1931, she won an essay contest in high school borrowing from Nietzsche and, much to the chagrin of her conservative family and neighbors, entitled “God Dies.” Later, at the University of Washington, she won a subscription contest from a Leftist newspaper. The prize: a trip to the USSR in 1934. These precocious displays of a woman expressing a political opinion outside the status quo continued as she became famous. In an era where Hollywood stars were just supposed to shut up and stay hopped up for all night shoots, Farmer either became confrontational or fell apart (or both), depending on whose version you want to believe. However, what seems obvious is that no male actor suffered the same indignities for such minor, behavioral, attitude offenses. And, the way the psychiatric system was set up in the 1940’s and 1950’s, patients had very few rights, especially if they were women and left under the custody of parents.
While much has been disputed in William Arnold’s account, his narrative makes for compelling dystopian reading. Think of a cross between “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “1984” and “Hollywood Babylon.” I dare anyone to read this book in less than two sittings and then not become captivated with trying to verify facts on-line and renting “Frances.”
Notes:
--Frances Farmer’s family home is a ten-minute walk from my former apartment on Alki Beach. The exact address is not made too public, but any decent internet search will reveal a house on 47th Street a couple of houses off Admiral. There are West Seattleites who knew the family and won’t talk to an outsider about any of the allegations.
--West Seattle has Farmer festivals every year or so with her films and the 1981, “Francis” being shown at Admiral Cinema, which—I believe—is also featured in the 1981 film.
--“Shadowland” is a cult classic around West Seattle. My copy is a first edition from Twice Told Tales on Capitol Hill.
--As a former and repentant psychology major, I am always horrified at descriptions of psychiatric treatment in the 50’s and 60’s. Accounts of electroshock therapy that Lou Reed received, at the behest of his parents, and the treatment of other artistic personalities leave me disgusted. I have a harder time reading about abuses in the psychiatric industry than reading about genocide.
*As anyone in Seattle will attest, living there for over 20 years doesn’t make you a native. You are just regarded with a little less suspicion; the icy glares have a very slight thaw.
Some key moments from her early biography, ably portrayed in the 1982 film “Frances,” some of which was filmed on location in West Seattle and downtown, starring Jessica Lange: In 1931, she won an essay contest in high school borrowing from Nietzsche and, much to the chagrin of her conservative family and neighbors, entitled “God Dies.” Later, at the University of Washington, she won a subscription contest from a Leftist newspaper. The prize: a trip to the USSR in 1934. These precocious displays of a woman expressing a political opinion outside the status quo continued as she became famous. In an era where Hollywood stars were just supposed to shut up and stay hopped up for all night shoots, Farmer either became confrontational or fell apart (or both), depending on whose version you want to believe. However, what seems obvious is that no male actor suffered the same indignities for such minor, behavioral, attitude offenses. And, the way the psychiatric system was set up in the 1940’s and 1950’s, patients had very few rights, especially if they were women and left under the custody of parents.
While much has been disputed in William Arnold’s account, his narrative makes for compelling dystopian reading. Think of a cross between “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “1984” and “Hollywood Babylon.” I dare anyone to read this book in less than two sittings and then not become captivated with trying to verify facts on-line and renting “Frances.”
Notes:
--Frances Farmer’s family home is a ten-minute walk from my former apartment on Alki Beach. The exact address is not made too public, but any decent internet search will reveal a house on 47th Street a couple of houses off Admiral. There are West Seattleites who knew the family and won’t talk to an outsider about any of the allegations.
--West Seattle has Farmer festivals every year or so with her films and the 1981, “Francis” being shown at Admiral Cinema, which—I believe—is also featured in the 1981 film.
--“Shadowland” is a cult classic around West Seattle. My copy is a first edition from Twice Told Tales on Capitol Hill.
--As a former and repentant psychology major, I am always horrified at descriptions of psychiatric treatment in the 50’s and 60’s. Accounts of electroshock therapy that Lou Reed received, at the behest of his parents, and the treatment of other artistic personalities leave me disgusted. I have a harder time reading about abuses in the psychiatric industry than reading about genocide.
*As anyone in Seattle will attest, living there for over 20 years doesn’t make you a native. You are just regarded with a little less suspicion; the icy glares have a very slight thaw.
May 1, 2012
I actually found this book very entertaining, even though it reads more like a personal account of the author writing the biography of Frances Farmer, rather than a biography itself. It's biased, filled with typos, and questionable "facts," but I still blew through it. I wish a real biography of Frances Farmer would be written. It seems like a more factual account would be just as compelling.
May 19, 2008
An investigative reporter's 1978 biography of Frances Farmer, this fills the gap between the other two available books on her life: Will There Ever Be A Morning and Look Back In Love. More truth seems to be in this book than anywhere else.
December 31, 2023
LITERATURE in PUNK ROCK - Book #62-63
------------------------
SONG: Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle
ALBUM: In Utero by Nirvana (1993)
BOOK:
- Shadowland by William Arnold (1978)
- Shadowland: Revisited by William Arnold (2016)
--------------------------
Frances Farmer, a controversial Seattle actress of the Golden-Age of Cinema was a fixture in the consciousness of Nirvana frontman, Kurt Cobain, from his early teens to the last days of his life.
Early Cobain biographers heralded Farmer as the “patron martyr” for him and his wife, Courtney Love; via a pseudo-kinship formed from parallels in their mistreatment in the press (ie substance abuse). During their wedding, Courtney Love adorned Frances Farmers’ 1936 wedding dress.
———————————
Cobain’s fascination however arose earlier from a teenage reading of Shadowland written by local-Seattle journalist William Arnold (1978).
The book is a biographical blend of surreal-yet-true stories and sensationalized anti-psychiatry story-building.
Shadowland’s overall gist: An idealistic (ie atheistic, communist) young actress challenges her world’s hypocrisy only to wind up institutionalized by a spiteful mother, vengeful Hollywood and a cabal of psychiatrists. After fifteen years of brutal mistreatment (insulin-, hydro-shock therapy) sexual abuse and eventual lobotomy, she is released: a former shell of her vibrant self.
There is truth. Frances Farmer whom featured in many films alongside stars like Bing Crosby and Cary Grant had a sordid history in Seattle. As a precocious teenager she won the 1931 Scholastic National Arts & Writing Award for a Nietzschian essay: “God Dies.” She likewise won (and took) a trip to Russia in 1935 from a subscription-drive for communist paper “The Voice of Action.” Her drunk driving arrest and later extradition from Mexico in 1942, and eventual psychiatric commitment in 1943 are a matter of public record.
The remaining story in Shadowland however is a blend of sloppy-fact checking and fictionalized plot-devices packaged into a visceral, Scientology-influenced, anti-psychiatry screed.
———————————
By 1993, Nirvana’s rising stardom further propelled Kurt Cobain’s identification with Frances Farmer.
Following the release of “In Utero,” Cobain made multiple attempts to contact Shadowland’s author William Arnold. Cobain left many voicemails with rambling, manic theories about being related to the judge that signed Frances Farmers commitment order. Arnold freaked out by these drug-addled, midnight messages on his work voicemail, reports he only narrowly escaped an impromptu visit by Cobain through his office back door.
As the story goes, weeks later in April, a journalist colleague explained to Arnold that Kurt Cobain was actually the world-famous musician of the band “Nirvana.” Intrigued, Arnold wrote "Return the call of K.C. - the Nirvana guy!" at the top of his to-do list for that day, April 8, 1994, coincidentally the day that Cobain's body was found.
------------------------
SONG: Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle
ALBUM: In Utero by Nirvana (1993)
BOOK:
- Shadowland by William Arnold (1978)
- Shadowland: Revisited by William Arnold (2016)
--------------------------
Frances Farmer, a controversial Seattle actress of the Golden-Age of Cinema was a fixture in the consciousness of Nirvana frontman, Kurt Cobain, from his early teens to the last days of his life.
Early Cobain biographers heralded Farmer as the “patron martyr” for him and his wife, Courtney Love; via a pseudo-kinship formed from parallels in their mistreatment in the press (ie substance abuse). During their wedding, Courtney Love adorned Frances Farmers’ 1936 wedding dress.
———————————
Cobain’s fascination however arose earlier from a teenage reading of Shadowland written by local-Seattle journalist William Arnold (1978).
The book is a biographical blend of surreal-yet-true stories and sensationalized anti-psychiatry story-building.
Shadowland’s overall gist: An idealistic (ie atheistic, communist) young actress challenges her world’s hypocrisy only to wind up institutionalized by a spiteful mother, vengeful Hollywood and a cabal of psychiatrists. After fifteen years of brutal mistreatment (insulin-, hydro-shock therapy) sexual abuse and eventual lobotomy, she is released: a former shell of her vibrant self.
There is truth. Frances Farmer whom featured in many films alongside stars like Bing Crosby and Cary Grant had a sordid history in Seattle. As a precocious teenager she won the 1931 Scholastic National Arts & Writing Award for a Nietzschian essay: “God Dies.” She likewise won (and took) a trip to Russia in 1935 from a subscription-drive for communist paper “The Voice of Action.” Her drunk driving arrest and later extradition from Mexico in 1942, and eventual psychiatric commitment in 1943 are a matter of public record.
The remaining story in Shadowland however is a blend of sloppy-fact checking and fictionalized plot-devices packaged into a visceral, Scientology-influenced, anti-psychiatry screed.
———————————
By 1993, Nirvana’s rising stardom further propelled Kurt Cobain’s identification with Frances Farmer.
Following the release of “In Utero,” Cobain made multiple attempts to contact Shadowland’s author William Arnold. Cobain left many voicemails with rambling, manic theories about being related to the judge that signed Frances Farmers commitment order. Arnold freaked out by these drug-addled, midnight messages on his work voicemail, reports he only narrowly escaped an impromptu visit by Cobain through his office back door.
As the story goes, weeks later in April, a journalist colleague explained to Arnold that Kurt Cobain was actually the world-famous musician of the band “Nirvana.” Intrigued, Arnold wrote "Return the call of K.C. - the Nirvana guy!" at the top of his to-do list for that day, April 8, 1994, coincidentally the day that Cobain's body was found.
September 23, 2022
Simply the Best
I often feel like I have no control. I often feel like I am sane but pushed to insanity. I love the line about her behavior being a product of the treatment and not her needing treatment for that problem. I related to this book in a way that has given me a little relief. I feel like someone gets it. They destroyed her. Maybe she was no longer “wild” but she was then terrified and no longer able to contribute to the arts. That is a damn shame because who knows what someone like Frances could have done. It is a good reminder that the spirit can be broken, even in the most defiant and creative. Hopefully she gets to watch as her tormentors get the same treatment in the after life. We must talk about this stuff because look away long enough and the direction will change. Everyone should read this book.
I often feel like I have no control. I often feel like I am sane but pushed to insanity. I love the line about her behavior being a product of the treatment and not her needing treatment for that problem. I related to this book in a way that has given me a little relief. I feel like someone gets it. They destroyed her. Maybe she was no longer “wild” but she was then terrified and no longer able to contribute to the arts. That is a damn shame because who knows what someone like Frances could have done. It is a good reminder that the spirit can be broken, even in the most defiant and creative. Hopefully she gets to watch as her tormentors get the same treatment in the after life. We must talk about this stuff because look away long enough and the direction will change. Everyone should read this book.
September 15, 2025
it is a frightening and shocking hollywood story. it is sad and even more disappointing to know that she wasn’t the only one to have dealt with such an horrific life experience.
there’s old conservative thoughts about mental health but it is scaring to think about mental issues nowadays even, as we struggle with other problematic ways of coping with that and majorly the chilling world in which we live now.
there’s old conservative thoughts about mental health but it is scaring to think about mental issues nowadays even, as we struggle with other problematic ways of coping with that and majorly the chilling world in which we live now.
March 21, 2022
An interesting look at an intriguing woman, this biography reads almost like a mystery story. There are many points of speculation but, sadly, not a lot of hard evidence to back up the author’s claims. While the book was an interesting read (especially when compared to Farmer’s autobiography-that she probably didn’t write by…), there were a lot of maybes presented. It was a quick read.
May 20, 2025
Was William Arnold a Scientologist trying to discredit Psychiatry
or was he just trying to profit from someone else's misery?
In court when he was suing the movie producers of Frances he admitted he fabricated this book.
Check out the website Shedding light by Jeffery Kaufman who did actual research.
or was he just trying to profit from someone else's misery?
In court when he was suing the movie producers of Frances he admitted he fabricated this book.
Check out the website Shedding light by Jeffery Kaufman who did actual research.
April 18, 2018
Short, trashy, and entertaining. The author claimed later that much of it was fictionalized (in order to claim copyright for the purpose of suing movie producers who used this bio for the film version).
June 22, 2018
When Kurt Cobain writes a song inspired by someone's tragic life, (Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle, off the In Utero album, 1993), it makes you wonder what it's all about. This book delivered in answering that question. Random but great read.
February 24, 2021
Grueling account of the life of Frances Farmer.. Brief chapters and the sad story just speeds along.. unbelievable that such tragic, horrendous things could happen to a woman in the forties and early fifties of the last century.
May 17, 2022
The things that were done to Farmer — by the legal system, psychiatry, her family, and herself — were appalling. To those add the fraud of this book by author Arnold, who admitted fictionalizing important aspects. The real story was bad enough, but this fictionalized account is a disgrace.
October 31, 2018
Shocking.
January 31, 2020
More novel than biography, he really did the dirt on her here. Was interesting but I think I will read more of her own writing to get an insight into her life.
February 5, 2023
Couldn't feel morr blessed for having been born in the mid seventies!
It 's so sad, so brutal...
It 's so sad, so brutal...
March 24, 2024
FRANCES FARMER WILL HAVE HER REVENGE ON BUENOS AIRES.
August 21, 2024
4.5 stars
frances will have her revenge
frances will have her revenge
January 14, 2015
"Shadowland" is interesting, maybe even fascinating, and it's an easy read. Despite telling a quite sad story, Arnold has written "Shadowland" in a rather breezy style with very short chapters. For readability and interest, I'd give William Arnold's book about Frances Farmer more stars, but several details in the book have sparked controversy and charges that they're false. I don't know the truth of the matter. No one seems to. I don't think there has been anything written about Frances Farmer that hasn't been criticized as at least part fiction, including a memoir that she wrote, unfinished at the time of her death and published post posthumously and doctored by a close companion. It's disconcerting.
Frances Farmer (1913-1970) grew up in West Seattle, maybe about five or six miles from where I live. She's no longer remembered in Seattle or in almost any place else. But she was once famous. In the '30s and 40s, Hollywood's Golden Era, she was thought to be the next Garbo, Cecil B. de Mille praised her, Howard Hawkes said she was the most gifted actress he had ever worked with. She made movies with Bing Crosby, Tyrone Power, Cary Grant and other big movies stars who ARE remembered. In the 90s, Kurt Cobain, another sad Seattle story, put her on the cover of one of his CD's with the byline "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle." It's the fifth song on the album. He named his daughter after her.
So what happened to Frances Farmer? As alluded to earlier, no seems to have nailed down the facts. William Arnold attempts to tell her story in this book published in 1978. Arnold was a long-time movie critic for the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer," a print newspaper no longer published (but still has a small on-line presence). I read his reviews regularly; he was one of my favorite movie reviewers. So I give his book more credit than some do. Some basic biography seems to be agreed upon.
Frances was an intelligent but not very popular student. When at West Seattle High School, she won a national writing contest for her essay, "God Dies," resulting from a disappointment about unanswered prayers. For her first prize she received $100, a big award at the time. While at the University of Washington, in the midst of the labor/communist movement in Seattle and down the west coast, Frances won a trip to Russia by selling the most subscriptions to a communist magazine. It seemed she had help from others who sold in her name. At any rate, the prize was a trip to Russia. Her mother, a fervent anti-communist, forbid her to go. Frances went anyway and came back deeply moved by the poverty she saw there. Seattle was not impressed.
Frances' great ambition was to be on the legitimate stage. Hollywood was only a way to get some fame and some money so that she could make it in New York. In both places Frances had some real success but also disasters. It is during this era that the various biographies of Frances get lambasted. She was addicted to drugs? She was an alcoholic? She was mentally unstable? All of those things seem to be true to varying degrees. She was stubborn, uncooperative, truculent, her own worst enemy, and very insecure despite her looks and her talent. Those things seem to be true.
She was involuntarily committed to Western State Hospital for the mentally ill (insane). She underwent various kinds of treatments there, some seem to have been inhumane, to put it mildly. Conditions appalling. Arnold suggests but does not assert that she may have had a lobotomy. This has been voraciously attacked, mostly by one Jeffrey Kauffman, who has his own ax to grind. Any resident of Washington state has heard horror tales about Western State. At least some seem to have been true, although a psychiatrist friend of mine took great issue with the way Arnold portrays mental health treatment in this book. Her family was not supportive and, in fact, probably contributed to Frances' instability.
She died in Indiana of cancer of the esophagus. Her last years seem to have be relatively tranquil and happy. Her sister, with whom she was never close, as well as several others have tried to put their spin on Frances' life. Jessica Lange stared in a movie about her based in great part on Arnold's book. When Arnold wrote his book in 1978, he was surprised to find that the house Frances grew up was still standing. I drove over to the address. It's still there. Moss on the roof, gutters falling off, soffits rotting, and so on. There it stands (well sort of) in a solidly middle-class neighborhood, an eye sore amidst well kept lawns. Not much of a revenge.
Frances Farmer (1913-1970) grew up in West Seattle, maybe about five or six miles from where I live. She's no longer remembered in Seattle or in almost any place else. But she was once famous. In the '30s and 40s, Hollywood's Golden Era, she was thought to be the next Garbo, Cecil B. de Mille praised her, Howard Hawkes said she was the most gifted actress he had ever worked with. She made movies with Bing Crosby, Tyrone Power, Cary Grant and other big movies stars who ARE remembered. In the 90s, Kurt Cobain, another sad Seattle story, put her on the cover of one of his CD's with the byline "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle." It's the fifth song on the album. He named his daughter after her.
So what happened to Frances Farmer? As alluded to earlier, no seems to have nailed down the facts. William Arnold attempts to tell her story in this book published in 1978. Arnold was a long-time movie critic for the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer," a print newspaper no longer published (but still has a small on-line presence). I read his reviews regularly; he was one of my favorite movie reviewers. So I give his book more credit than some do. Some basic biography seems to be agreed upon.
Frances was an intelligent but not very popular student. When at West Seattle High School, she won a national writing contest for her essay, "God Dies," resulting from a disappointment about unanswered prayers. For her first prize she received $100, a big award at the time. While at the University of Washington, in the midst of the labor/communist movement in Seattle and down the west coast, Frances won a trip to Russia by selling the most subscriptions to a communist magazine. It seemed she had help from others who sold in her name. At any rate, the prize was a trip to Russia. Her mother, a fervent anti-communist, forbid her to go. Frances went anyway and came back deeply moved by the poverty she saw there. Seattle was not impressed.
Frances' great ambition was to be on the legitimate stage. Hollywood was only a way to get some fame and some money so that she could make it in New York. In both places Frances had some real success but also disasters. It is during this era that the various biographies of Frances get lambasted. She was addicted to drugs? She was an alcoholic? She was mentally unstable? All of those things seem to be true to varying degrees. She was stubborn, uncooperative, truculent, her own worst enemy, and very insecure despite her looks and her talent. Those things seem to be true.
She was involuntarily committed to Western State Hospital for the mentally ill (insane). She underwent various kinds of treatments there, some seem to have been inhumane, to put it mildly. Conditions appalling. Arnold suggests but does not assert that she may have had a lobotomy. This has been voraciously attacked, mostly by one Jeffrey Kauffman, who has his own ax to grind. Any resident of Washington state has heard horror tales about Western State. At least some seem to have been true, although a psychiatrist friend of mine took great issue with the way Arnold portrays mental health treatment in this book. Her family was not supportive and, in fact, probably contributed to Frances' instability.
She died in Indiana of cancer of the esophagus. Her last years seem to have be relatively tranquil and happy. Her sister, with whom she was never close, as well as several others have tried to put their spin on Frances' life. Jessica Lange stared in a movie about her based in great part on Arnold's book. When Arnold wrote his book in 1978, he was surprised to find that the house Frances grew up was still standing. I drove over to the address. It's still there. Moss on the roof, gutters falling off, soffits rotting, and so on. There it stands (well sort of) in a solidly middle-class neighborhood, an eye sore amidst well kept lawns. Not much of a revenge.
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February 8, 2009 I learned a bit about Frances Farmer and psychiatry in the late thirties and early forties, although I believe this book was fictionalized, cases like this *DID* happen , just not to Miss Farmer. Although I'm sure Frances wasn't treated well in the facility she was held in, I have no doubt that there was abuse of some sort. It's a fact that she went through hydrotherapy, insulin shock and electroshock but the infamous lobotomy is believed by many to be false but it really wouldn't surprise me if she was actually lobotomized.
January 22, 2016
Not too surprised to learn this isn't entirely factual-- the claim in the Epilogue that all psychiatry is a sham seemed to be a strange conclusion to draw from Farmer's life story-- but even if Arnold's most sensational theories are mere conjecture or outright fabrications, there seems to be enough truth in his version to give one the heebie-jeebies.
August 19, 2009
This was one of the first biographies I ever read, and although it was fascinating, it turns out that it includes many fabrications about the real Frances Farmer. Apparently the movie starring Jessica Lange is also based on some of these fictional accounts of her life.
September 9, 2007
I was very young when I read this and it is very disturbing. Apparently it's mostly fictionalized, but the visuals that this gave me as a child were horrific.
June 5, 2009
I loved this until I found out that most of it was fictionalized. HEART-BREAKING BUMMER! I hope that the part about her favorite word being "cocksucker" and fighting with cops were true.
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