The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll: The Search for Dare Wright

by Jean Nathan

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805076123
• ISBN13: 9780805076127
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 308 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Disappointing - Dare deserved better than this

After reading Brooke Ashley's biography "Dare Wright And The Lonely Doll" I was excited there was one more book in existence about this incredible woman. However, so much is missing, so much included was speculation and quite a few important life events directly contradict what was in Ashley's biography (which, Ashley was there so I trust her version of events). Jean Nathan really paints her in a humiliating light with the major events of her life, including her last months and the health crisis that led to her long term hospitalization and eventual death are summed up in like four vague sentences at the end of the book. Followed by a lengthy epilogue about the author's relationship to the lonely doll books which I skimmed for info about Dare finding none. She sought out Dare and found her during the last few months? years? of her life, that's the whole premise of the book, so why zero info about it? Such a bummer, she deserves better.

My Friends Read the Book, but I was intrigued by the premise...

My memory of this book is that other students read this book so often I didn't ever check it out until as an adult. I was shocked by the spanking. I don't know how I would have felt as a child reading it, maybe the same and find I wasn't alone.

a 'child woman', a feminist, or both??

As the bard wrote, "there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in your philosophy." Like the bandleader Billy Tipton, later revealed as a woman who successfully impersonated a man--children's book author Dare Wright was an American woman who fell outside of the normative bounds of sexuality. Judging from other reviews, some people have a hard time getting their minds around that idea...but,be assured, there is no 'repulsive' photography in this book, and the story is disturbing only because it reveals a sensitive female who did not receive the love she deserved. Dare Wright was a resourceful woman who became independently successful on her own terms, and was attractive enough to have married several times over, had she been able to. She was prevented from doing so by psychological trauma. Like many creative people, she dealt with her personal demons by addressing them through her work. She achieved by her wits, and by 'sublimation', if you will. This book is like its subject, unforgettable, as troublingly compelling as Alfred Hitchcock's film "Marnie", which also portrayed a tormented, but strong-minded female. Only a reader with a hardened heart would feel no compassion for Dare, a remarkable person entrapped by her own personality. I came to this book having no familiarity with Dare Wright. Her photographs and her strange life are now etched in my memory.

Eccentric Bio

With out a doubt you are captured by the attention to detail of this book. Very hard to put down. Page after page of the extremely "Odd" relationship between mother and daughter. She can not seem to break away from this relationship, even for a moment. This is truly a rare and different type of story. One that will keep you guessing about just how deep the relationship is. Memoirs to read: Nightmares Echo, Sickened,A Paper Life

Mesmerizing!!

Like others, I could not put this book down! If you looked at Dare Wright superficially you would think she had it all together, a beautiful model, photographer, author. But Jean Nathan wrote a fascinating and chilling story. The Lonely Doll books were among my childhood favorites and I have given an entire set that I collected over the years (with the help of Cathy Niswonger who is mentioned toward the end of the book) to my nieces. And they are not so interested in them! So my sister and I read them and recall our childhoods like it was yesterday. One other point. The reviewer who mentioned the film Grey Gardens - do you recall the name of the two women in it? Big Edie and Little Edie! Kind of creepy after reading this book! I will definitely be keeping this one in my library.

Dolly Dearest!!!

This is the thoroughly gripping, utterly creepy, and ultimately tragic story of Dare Wright, her mother Edie, her doll Edie (Yes, the doll was named after her mother!) and Dare's creation of The Lonely Doll series of children's books popular in the 1950s-60s. Edie was also an accomplished portrait artist! Eccentric doesn't even BEGIN to describe this family dynamic. This mother/daughter duo often slept in the same bed, took numerous photos (many nude!) of each other, played an ongoing game of dress up and make-believe, and existed almost exclusively in a clinging calustrophobic fantasy world built for two. The parallels between Dare's life and her Lonely Doll books are chilling as is Edie's maniacal possessiveness of her daughter. It's very reminiscent of the 70s film documentary 'Grey Gardens'...only with a doll named after the mother but fashioned to physically resemble the daughter. A gripping chronicle of two enmeshed and unbelievable lives that left me in awe many times...Wonderfully weird...dolly dearest indeed!

The complex relationship between mother and daughter

Remember the seminal books of your youth? For journalist Jean Nathan, that book was THE LONELY DOLL. First published in 1957, with its pink and white gingham cover, this book featured photographs of a little blond-haired doll named Edith, and it put its author, Dare Wright, on the map. Almost 40 years later, with the book long since out of print, Nathan decided to find out a little more about its author. What she found saddened and shocked her. First, she set about getting a copy of the book, which was no easy feat. After many attempts to locate Wright, Nathan simply opened the phone book and there was the author's address. It was with both anticipation and a little dread that she wrote to her. What if Wright was dead? Is it better not to know? Within a few weeks, she received her answer. Brook Ashley was a friend of the Wright family and explained that Dare was in a New York hospital on life support. Since there were no living relatives, Brook stepped in to act as her legal guardian. She was touched by Nathan's letter and began regaling her with the story of Dare's life. Dare Wright was the second child born to Edith Stevenson and Ivan Wright in 1914. Both parents had artistic leanings. Wright was a failed actor and ultimately a theater critic, and Edith, known as Edie, desperately longed to study art abroad but was forced to abandon that dream when she married. Their first child was a son named Blaine. The family shuttled back and forth between Toronto and New York. Edie and Ivan's marriage was strained from the beginning and, after the children were born, quickly began to disintegrate. They divorced and Edie took young Dare and settled in Cleveland, while Blaine stayed with Ivan. Early on, the relationship between mother and daughter could best be described as oddly intense. Dare, being so young at the time of the split, was never told she had a brother and barely saw her father again. She learned of Blaine's existence much later, and the two got to be extremely close when Dare was a young woman living in New York City. Because Edie was now a divorcee, Dare became her constant companion, accompanying her on trips to Europe and their annual summer jaunt to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Edie became a well-known and much sought-after portrait painter. Dare, who was always a beautiful girl, decided to move to New York City in the 1940s and pursue a career as a model. She did quite well, even gracing the cover of Cosmopolitan. Despite her steady modeling work, Dare always maintained outside interests, something she and her mother would practice on their many trips together. Dare picked up photography, probably from her mother, who frequently used Dare as a model, sometimes in provocative nude shots. As she grew older and modeling jobs dwindled, Dare decided to create a children's book featuring photographs of her favorite doll, Edith, named after the most important and influential person in her life. Published in 1957, THE LONELY DOLL was