Mother Goddam – The Story of the Career of Bette Davis by Whitney Stine with Bette Davis

Mother Goddam – The Story of the Career of Bette Davis by Whitney Stine, with a running commentary by Bette Davis, is one of the most celebrated books on the actress. This is the first British edition, published in London in 1975 by W. H. Allen, a division of Howard & Wyndham, printed by Fletcher & Son of Norwich and bound by Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) of Bungay. The text is copyright 1974 by Whitney Stine.

Stine traces Davis’s career from her earliest days in Hollywood through her years as the leading dramatic star at Warner Bros. and beyond, while Davis adds her own candid remarks alongside his account. Mother Goddam reads almost as a conversation between biographer and subject. The book opens with a frontispiece portrait of Davis from her first photographic session at Universal Studios in September 1930, and the striking dust jacket design is by Michael L. Vollbracht.

With Davis’s own voice running through it, Mother Goddam has the wit and bite that made her a legend. It is a valuable record of the studio era from the inside, by one of its sharpest observers.

Mother Goddam will appeal to classic film enthusiasts, collectors of Hollywood biography, admirers of Bette Davis and anyone interested in the golden age of the studio system.

Condition – Very Good in a Very Good dust jacket

First British edition in the publisher’s brown cloth, with the spine lettered in bright gilt; the boards are clean and the binding is tight. The book retains its original illustrated dust jacket, which is bright and complete, with light rubbing, a few small nicks to the edges and corners, and some light soiling. The inside of the jacket shows spotting. An Adams & Co. Ltd, Durban, bookseller’s label is on the front pastedown. Foxing is present on the text block, mainly to the page edges; the pages are otherwise clean.