Mae West: Empress of Sex

by Maurice Leonard

A biography of the archetypal film star discusses West's Brooklyn girlhood, her rise to international fame, her arrest for "corrupting the morals of youth," her business savvy, and her sensational comeback.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

413 pages, Hardcover

First published May 21, 1992

Reviews

[Anna Biller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mae West is one of my favorite entertainers of all time, so any biography of her is going to be a sheer delight for me. Some great anecdotes about her cleverness, her intelligence, her shrewdness, and how hard she worked to get where she got. I especially loved the story of how she charmed the prison guards, and how she parlayed her first bit part in Hollywood into a dazzling career, in which she quickly shot up to #1 at her studio and at the box office. West is the ultimate STAR, and she earned every bit of that status.

[Ashlea F C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bizarre and fascinating delve into the life of a true artist.

[Beverly Diehl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is jam-packed with facts, people, events, and deep analysis of Mae's life, life choices, fibs, and various presentations. So it's an invaluable resource if you are researching Mae West's life.

My main problem with it is that Mae was FUN, and this book was not. It takes itself Very Seriously, and though I was intensely interested in the subject matter, it kept putting me to sleep. Additionally, there were sometimes British terms or ways of phrasing that were confusing; a reference to Mae gaining or losing weight in stones, for example. Yes, that's how they describe weight gain/loss in the UK, and I wouldn't quibble about it in a book about a British or Irish film star, but Mae was an AMERICAN icon; seems like her weight fluctuations should be described in pounds, or both terms used.

But mostly it's just that the writing style was so very dry, compared to Mae's wit and humor, that made it a hard read for me. (Your mileage may vary.)