Oona: Living in the Shadows: A Biography of Oona O'Neill Chaplin

New York: Warner Books, 1998. x, 354 pages, illustrations; 22 cm. Near fine. Tight, clean copy. One leaf dogeared. Daughter of Eugene O'Neill, Oona became the wife of Charlie Chaplin. "She was one of the most exquisite beauties of her generation, admired, envied, and talked about. She intrigued the public for decades, but little was really known about her. Now, in this stunning biography, new light is shed, at last, on the mystery that was.OONA. Born into a family blessed by genius and plagued by tragedy, Oona lived in the shadows from an early age. Her father, Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, was an alcoholic and distant man who abandoned Oona when she was a child and later disinherited her. Her eccentric mother, a writer, was loving yet often absent. Her older half brother, Eugene O'Neill Jr., was a brilliant Ivy League scholar; her brother, Shane, was addicted to drugs. Both committed suicide at an early age. Drawing on extensive research and eyewitness accounts from those who knew her well, this book reveals how Oona yearned for her father's love her entire life and, for most of her years, managed to evade the family curse of drink and despair. In compelling detail, it relates how as a girl she turned her back on Manhattan's caf? society and went to Hollywood to become an actress. There, the eighteen-year-old starlet met and fell in love with the world's adored King of Comedy. At fifty-four, Charlie Chaplin was thirty-six years her senior, had been married three times, and had had a steady stream of mistresses. To the surprise of the world, they wed. To the dismay of gossipmongers, theirs was a loving marriage blessed with eight children that lasted until Charlie's death in 1977. From debutante high jinks in World War II New York to reigning royalty during Hollywood's heyday, from blacklisting in America to exile in Europe, from heroic loyalty during her husband's waning days to widowhood and the men with whom she tried to assuage her grief, Oona: Living In The Shadows speaks candidly of Oona's world of celebrity and the exceptional people whose lives touched hers, as well as the rich personal complexities that made the Chaplins click. Most of all, it is the astonishing and poignant story of a remarkable woman - daughter of one genius, wife of another - whose allure and intellect gave her a kind of noble strength and made her a heroine in her own right." - Publisher.. Paperback. Very Good. 8vo.