West of Eden: An American Place

This oral history delves behind the scenes of Tinseltown’s most illustrious bloodlines, providing rare insight into the lives of such Hollywood notables as the Warners, Dohenys, and Garlands. “I had the sense that my world was make-believe,” writes Stein (Edie: An American Girl), who grew up immersed in the company of Hollywood’s most elite families. She includes anecdotes about Arthur Miller, Warren Beatty, and Jane Fonda, as well as fascinating Hollywood stories about the crony-capitalist Teapot Dome scandal, affairs between starlets and studio executives’ wives during the 1950s, the vicious relationship Jack Warner developed with his son Jack Jr., how the Conference of Studio Unions strikes of 1945 led to the House Un-American Activities Committee’s Communist witch hunt, and Ronald Reagan’s transformation from liberal actor into conservative figurehead. Stein’s exhaustive research and brand-new interviews make this an invaluable resource for any student of pop culture, or indeed of 20th-century American history. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency. (Feb.)