Anne Edwards

“Streisand: A Biography” is much more than the story of the world's greatest living performer, how she got there, and why she remains at the top after three decades, it is also, in Anne Edward's sure hands, a compelling chronicle of a woman's fight to validate her appearance, her talent, and her right to love and be loved. Time and time again Streisand has demonstrated the ability to reinvent herself to keep pace with the continuing changes in...

First published in 1986 and nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, “Early Reagan” is still the most in-depth portrayal of the pre-government years of the late president. The book uncovers Reagan's formative years: childhood poverty, film stardom, and his politicization via the Screen Actors Guild. Anne Edwards interviewed more than two hundred people important in the life of Reagan as well as those of his two wives, Jane Wyman and Nancy Davis. The...

Many Canadians say that British Columbia is the zaniest political province. It's too diverse, too polarized-geographically, demographically and ideologically. But the British Columbia political arena is lively, and it has often led the way in electing women to parliaments-as respected spokespeople for the public and as equal people. In Seeking Balance, Anne Edwards shares her conversations with more than eighty British Columbia women politicians,...

"I'm three and you're four," the future Queen, then a child, imperiously informed her sister. The younger girl, not understanding this reference to their position in the succession, proudly countered, "No, you're not. I'm three, you're seven." The royal sisters had no choice in their historic positions, but behind the palace gates and within the confines of their personalities, they displayed tremendous individuality and suffered the usual symptoms...

He was an actor, newly divorced, whose controversial tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild was drawing more attention than his fading film career. She was a contract player at MGM, unmarried and rapidly growing too old to play the starlet. It was time, she decided, to settle down and become Mrs. Somebody Important. So, Nancy Davis contrived an introduction to Ronald Reagan, and the Reagans march into history began. “The Reagans: Portrait...

At the age of five, Shirley Temple became the world's most famous and acclaimed child, the most talented, beautiful child performer ever to capture the public's imagination. By the time she was ten, she had either met or had received words of admiration from almost everyone of distinction. Nine-tenths of the world could recognize her on sight. She single-handedly cheered an entire nation caught in the firm grip of a depression. Her films saved a major...

Edwards's biography presents a complete picture of the late actress, and not just the boozing, drug-addicted caricature of a woman central to lesser biographies. We learn, for example, that Garland saw it as her duty to provide for her family financially, a generosity that her mother Ethel exploited with disastrous results. Above all, Judy Garland sought to please, whether it was an audience or a studio head, and therein lies her powerful and heartbreaking...

Wallis Warfield Spencer Simpson retains her pride and courage through an unhappy childhood, secures money and status through her lovers, and finds fame as the Duchess of Windsor.