Although icon Ava Gardner told her story to journalist Peter Evans in 1988, it is being released this month. She may have been legendary, but in the late eighties Ava found herself broke and told Evans: ‘I either write the book or sell the jewels. And I’m kinda sentimental about the jewels’. She gave candid interviews for hours over the phone and Evans visited her at her house in London. But when she found out Evans had been sued by her ex-husband Frank Sinatra, she withdrew. She made an autobiography with another ghostwriter, called Ava Gardner: My Story, and died soon after.
Evans got permission from Ava’s estate to work on the book and publish some interviews, but he passed away last september. So literary agent Ed Victor picked up the pieces and yesterday the memoir was finally released. Today it is not so much a memoir about Ava’s life, but more about the making of the book, Evans’ meetings and conversations with the legendary actress, her fear she may have told him too much or that she would come off wrong in the book, her self-doubt. Though there are some revelations about her marriages, some of which have been published in Vanity Fair, click on this link to read them: Vanity Fair.
Opinions about the way the book depicts the icon are divided: some feel the book makes Ava seem cranky and profain, other feel she seems frank and funny. Either way, the book has made a splash and this legendary actress finds herself in the limelight once again.
Read more about Ava Gardner’s Life.
There are times that I grow a little frustrated with this
one. If you are doing it for money, then you should try something else.