A silent-film star. A woman who played children, wide-eyed and gamine, skipping about in frills and long curls. That's how most people remember Mary Pickford. In reality, Pickford was a towering figure in movie history, central to the evolution of film acting and the development of the Hollywood motion picture industry. Born in Toronto in 1892, Pickford began acting as a child. She switched from stage to film at seventeen, joining D.W. Griffith's Biograph Company, and became almost unimaginably popular. This allowed her to dictate the terms of her contracts--power she seized and consolidated. She developed her own production company at Adolph Zukor's Famous Players, and in 1919 she co-founded United Artists (along with Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and her husband, Douglas Fairbanks), taking not only creative control but also direction of the marketing and distribution of her films.

Eight years in the making, this definitive biography brings Pickford to life as a complex knot of contradictions and establishes her as a groundbreaking genius, casting new light on one of the most influential and least understood artists in the history of popular culture. Eileen Whitfield recreates Pickford's life in meticulously researched detail, from her trying days in turn-of-the-century Toronto through her reign as mistress of Pickfair, the legendary Beverly Hills estate at which she and Fairbanks entertained the world’s elite, to her sadly moving demise. Along the way, Whitfield explores the intricate psychology that tied Pickford to her mother throughout her life and analyzes Pickford's brilliant innovations in the art of film acting, her profound influence on the movie business, and her role in the history of fame: once the best known woman in the world, she was the object of a mass adoration that prefigured today's cult of celebrity.

Eileen Whitfield is a journalist with Toronto Life magazine, as well as a playwright and former actress.

Reviews:

“A happy surprise—smart and tough-minded, yet respectful.”—Pauline Kael

"A superb biography."—Time

“Just as if a new wing had opened in a national museum or a lost symphony had been restored to the national repertory . . . Whitfield succeeds in giving us back a memory we thought we didn’t want.”—New Yorker

 “A nuanced, three-dimensional portrait of a complex woman whose story is a fascinating case study of a seminal period in Hollywood.”—Washington Post

“Will stand as the definitive biography.”—Library Journal (starred review)

"Not only an illuminating, beautifully written, and finally deeply disturbing exploration of a profoundly unresolvable personality, but an engaging, informative, and richly detailed study as anyone has done on the early days of the movies." —Boston Phoenix

"An excellent resource on the early film industry and Mary Pickford in particular, presenting her as a filmmaker and entrepreneur of amazing instincts. Whitfield provides a thorough and interesting documentation of Mary Pickford's unique and essential contribution to the American film industry."—Film & History

"Whitfield creates a compelling portrait of a woman who was not only a far more inventive actress than history has recalled, but the first female movie mogul."—Past Times Newsletter

"The best treatment so far of the facts of Pickford's life."—Letters in Canada

"Whitfield's writing strikes a nice balance between the personal and professional elements of Pickford's life."--Library Journal

"A poignant study of a woman reaching her peak early in life, and having to cope with loss of work, fame and family while still relatively young. She gives more of a feeling for the real woman behind the legend—and the woman Pickford wanted the world to think she was."—Silents Majority

“A knockout of a biography.” —Newsweek