The Secret Life Of The Lonely Doll

A glamorous, haunted life unfolds in the mesmerizing biography of the woman behind a classic children's book In 1957, a children's book called The Lonely Doll was published. With its pink-and-white-checked cover and photographs featuring a wide-eyed doll, it captured the imaginations of young girls and made the author, Dare Wright, a household name. Close to forty years after its publication, the book was out of print but not forgotten. When the cover image inexplicably came to journalist Jean Nathan one afternoon, she went in search of the book-and ultimately its author. Nathan found Dare Wright living out her last days in a decrepit public hospital in Queens, New York. Over the next five years, Nathan pieced together a glamorous life. Blond, beautiful Wright had begun her career as an actress and model and then turned to fashion photography before stumbling upon her role as bestselling author. But there was a dark side to the story: a brother lost in childhood, ill-fated marriage plans, a complicated, controlling mother. Edith Stevenson Wright, herself a successful portrait painter, played such a dominant role in her daughter's life that Dare was never able to find her way into the adult world. Only through her work could she speak for herself: in her books she created the happy family she'd always yearned for, while her self-portraits betrayed an unresolved tension between sexuality and innocence, a desire to belong and painful isolation. Illustrated with stunning photographs, The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll tells the unforgettable story of a woman who, imprisoned by her childhood, sought to set herself free through art.

A lonely doll named Edith finally finds friendship with two visiting teddy bears.

A poignant biography of Dare Wright, the beautiful and enigmatic photographer and author of The Lonely Doll children's book series, illustrated with over five hundred photographs. As Dare Wright's godchild, author Brook Ashley grew up in a magical world of dolls, bears and fairy tales helping create the scenes for Wright's children's books.

Edith, the doll featured in Dare Wright's best-selling "The Lonely Doll" book series, together with her friends, Mr. Bear and Little Bear, leave their city home for a vacation on Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Their summer is spent playing on pristine beaches, discovering the seaside wildlife, getting acquainted with wild ponies, and imagining adventures on the high seas. Little Bear ignores Mr. Bear's warning never to go on a boat without him, and he and Edith soon find themselves drifting dangerously out to sea. Luckily Mr. Bear comes to their rescue, and the two learn a valuable lesson before their vacation ends.

When the New York Dolls' bassist died suddenly at age 55 in 2004, he left behind not only their timeless music--and many thousands of fans and friends--but a memoir of the Dolls' early years. This distinctive and extroverted voice of an undisciplined showman is presented with an introduction and epilogue by his widow, Barbara. This up close and personal perspective of the band's early days and late nights--including an instance where he locks himself out of the studio in full drag while tripping on LSD--chronicles the glorious, glamorous era of high times, high drama, and low comedy that captures the music, the style, and the life of the all-too-brief existence of the New York Dolls.

Mr. Bear thinks that he needs to take Edith ("The Lonely Doll") and Little Bear away from their beloved New York City to escape the dirty air and streets. But Edith and Little Bear don't want to move to the country, so they take up the cause of cleaning up the city. They carry signs protesting the city's dirty condition as they march in front of City Hall. Later, they find themselves on the evening television news, much to the shagrin of Mr. Bear. But even with their publicity, the protest does not seem to draw the attention of the city's Mayor. So Edith and Little Bear write a letter and send it directly to the Mayor. And the Mayor sends a letter back, urging Edith and Little Bear to do a little bit every day to clean up the city themselves, and to keep watch for any polluters. Edith and Little Bear follow the Mayor's advice, and they begin to clean up their neighborhood themselves. They even report a nearby building's very dirty plume of smoke rising from a chimney. Mr. Bear, seeing how much Edith and Little Bear care for their home and their streets, happily decides they can remain in their home in the city.