The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll: The Search for Dare Wright

by Jean Nathan

published

August 1st 2005 by Picador

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binding

Paperback, 320 pages

isbn

0312424922 (isbn13: 9780312424923)

description

In 1957, a childrens book called The Lonely Doll was published. With its pink-and-white-checked cover and photographs featuring a wide-eyed doll, it c...more

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Jackie rated it:

08/23/08

bookshelves: biography, childrensbooks, misery--oh-misery, non-fiction

Read in January, 2005

recommends it for: fans of dysfunctional biographies

I don't know if you remember the Lonely Doll books. Bordered in pink checkerboard, and illustrated with black and white photos of the doll and her adventures, the first book was about a lonely little girl doll named Edith, who had a lovely home, but nobody to live with her. She finds a family when two bears, Mr. Bear and his son, appear in her garden.

I found the story a bit creepy, as Edith gets in trouble for dressing up and writing "Mr. Bear is a silly old thing" in lipst...more I don't know if you remember the Lonely Doll books. Bordered in pink checkerboard, and illustrated with black and white photos of the doll and her adventures, the first book was about a lonely little girl doll named Edith, who had a lovely home, but nobody to live with her. She finds a family when two bears, Mr. Bear and his son, appear in her garden.

I found the story a bit creepy, as Edith gets in trouble for dressing up and writing "Mr. Bear is a silly old thing" in lipstick on the mirror, and gets spanked, petticoats showing, over the knee of Mr. Bear. She begs him not to leave, and tells him she'll do anything if he will only stay. Hmm.

But a lot of girls, and grown up girls who remember the books from their childhoods, loved it and all the other books in the series.

The books are illustrated with lovingly staged photos of the doll Edith, always looking glamorous in elaborate hairstyles and clothing, and the bears in their home. The author and photographer was herself a glamorous young woman named Dare Wright.

Dare was abandoned by her father and brother at the age of three, leaving her to her mother's unhealthy dominence and over-intimacy. Dare's mother, Edie, dressed her up like a doll, and used Dare as model in elaborate photography shoots, including nudes, examples of which are included throughout the book. According to Nathan's account, Edie kept Dare in a state of emotional childhood, preventing her from developing independence and adult maturity.

Nathan theorizes that the Lonely Doll books reflect Dare's own childhood traumas, reenacted and reimagined through her doll model, Edith. It seems an obvious conclusion to draw.

The only male Dare felt comfortable with was her brother, Blaine, with whom she reconnected at the age of twenty. She avoided relationships with other men, and never married. After Edie's death at the age of 90, with no one to care for her, and never having learned to live independently, Dare fell into alcoholism, and self-destructive behavior, dying destitute and alone.

Twisted and fascinating, this book will draw you in and not let you go. I don't know if that counts as a recommendation....less

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Paul rated it:

04/20/08

Read in April, 2008

I suppose it's very hard to write a biography about a person who nobody ever got to know. The only thing to do is to stock it full of minute details in lieu of actual warmth, and that's mostly what this book is about. If you want to really know Dare Wright as a person, the only true method is to read this book in conjunction with the books Dare herself wrote. This book serves mostly as footnotes explaining the meaning behind Dare's creepy (and for me, now even creepier) children's books.

St...more

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Stephanie rated it:

(review of isbn 0739451995)

10/06/07

bookshelves: dreamlives, goodgirls, livingdolls

Read in January, 2002

recommends it for: people with Venus envy

Stumbling across this biography triggered a distant but happy memory of Dare Wright 's Lonely Doll books. Those stories were so precious to me. Not knowing what had become of Wright, I automatically snapped it up. It proved one of the best impulse buys I've ever made. Dare Wright led a fascinating life as an artist, photographer, and writer. Her demise was tragic but not shocking, given the fact she was virtually all alone toward the end of her life.

My favorite part of this book is the beaut...more

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Ginnie marked it as to-read

02/19/08

bookshelves: biography, to-read

The opening paragraph of The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll :

"Mostly, when Edie had to be out in the world, Dare was left at home alone. There, she learned to find comfort and companionship in her books and her dolls, and to fire up her imagination. If Dare's first dolls were improvisational, homemade, the books Edie bought Dare when she was feeling flush were the real thing. The first two she purchased were a collection of Grimm's fairy tales and a picture book called The Lovely Garden , the story of the much-beloved Princess Yolande who lives on the Island of Can-be-done, whose "sweet smile seemed to say: 'What am I here for if it is not to make others happier?'" The book's message was reminiscent of her mother's inscriptions on the backs of her portraits-"To my Good and Precious Daughter"-directives on how to act and so meet the conditions of Edie's love. But the mechanics of fairy tales carried a message, too. If princesses could be put to sleep and awaken unharmed, perhaps fathers and brothers could also. If princesses could escape punishing circumstances, perhaps Dare could, too.&...more

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Callie rated it:

(review of isbn 0805076123)

07/18/08

Read in July, 2008

recommended to Callie by: Kylee's to-reads
recommends it for: fans of Grey Gardens!

I can't believe I had not heard more about this book before!
It really seems like one that snuck under the radar. Oh my freaking god is what I kept wanting to shout out loud as it kept me up, reading page after page some nights past three in the morning. You are immediately drawn into the wacky lives of two women- the shy, ethereal, bizarre & gorgeous author of The Lonely Doll (also model/actress/artist), Dare Wright, and her crazier, eccentric artist mother, heavily painted faced Edie Wri...more

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Tosh rated it:

02/18/08

recommends it for: emotionally damaged people and Goodreads world

I love this book and I love Dare Wright. Even her name is great. Dare was a beautiful model who did a series of children books called "The Lonely Doll," where she photographed and wrote the narrative of this ugly little doll and her other doll friends. At one time it was thought to be charming, but looking at the books now they are truly hidious and scary.

The story of Dare Wright is truly an American Gothic tale, with a mother very close to her daughter (Dare Wright) and then to...more

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Tracy O rated it:

06/25/08

recommended to Tracy O by: Liz gave this to me, but that is highly uncharacteristic
recommends it for: Those Who Appreciate the Truly Strange

This book is so creepy it is like Night Gallery times 100. I loved the Lonely Doll when I was little (which is why Liz gave it to me), but this story of the author's life is really disturbing. I'm going to give this to Debbie B tonight because I think she can appreciate the weirdness of it without getting melancholy as I did when she reads it. Full disclosure: I didn't read every page - I sort of ended up skimming the second half of it because it so gosh darn BLEAK.

And, another aside, if ...more

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rory rated it:

07/21/07

Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: anyone ever creeped out by "the lonely doll"

...and, of course, if you've ever READ "the lonely doll," you were creeped out. and wondered in what sad, stunted brain the book found origin. well, turns out, the alarmingly erotic and weird picture book (and its 11 sequels) were indeed made by a disturbed person. yikes.

i couldn't even finish this even-handed account of dare wright--i had to just skim and keep my eyes partially averted. much like when reading her "the lonely doll."

dare was a model-turned-photograph...more

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Rachel rated it:

04/24/08

Read in April, 2007

This book was so tragic and depressing, but it was a real page-turner. I had never heard of the Lonely Doll books - they were way before my time - but I was horrified and fascinated when I read about them. It's amazing that so many people thought those creepy stories were delightful and charming at the time. It was clearly the author's attempt to make sense of her own tragic childhood, but there was no way to make sense of it. So many people in the book were so gifted and talented yet s...more

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Sarah rated it:

(review of isbn 0739451995)

06/28/07

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: if you liked the doc Grey Gardens

Oh dear God this book is awesome. It's about Dare Wright, who wrote and illustrated these children's books in the 1950s- they featured a doll, of course, and photos taken by Dare of the creepy doll in various (some pretty risque) poses, i.e. the doll tied to a tree, being spanked, etc. So she was a lonely never married recluse (at the end of her life) that lived in a massive Manhattan apartment. She lived with her mother for years and they had a really strange almost incestual relationship. Dit...more

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Kira rated it:

07/13/08

bookshelves: ireadyou

i don't know if it's possible to really enjoy this book, since the subject matter is so sad.
dare wright, the author of cult classic children's book 'the lonely doll,' was so damaged and her life was so bizarre that it made me have one of those realizations that i have to have sometimes, about how there are real people walking around who can literally barely function.
i felt like nathan's handling of the subject was fine, though dare's mom was definitely the villain in the book. it's hard to bel...more

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Lissa rated it:

02/18/08

Read in December, 2006

I loved the Lonely Doll books as a little girl. Some people, however, have always found them highly distrubing. (Perhaps why I was so fond of them--the aesthetic had this sort of noir/Cindy Sherman feel that you simply do not find in children's books.) So maybe it's unsurprising that the life of their author & photographer, Dare Wright, was so freakish. Honestly, the woman's life was part Wuthering Heights, part Flowers in the Attic, p...more

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Anne rated it:

06/04/07

bookshelves: lives

Read in May, 2007

If you ever read the children's book 'The Lonely Doll' and wondered how something so creepy could become a part of classic children's literature then you may be interested in this book. It chronicles the life of 'Lonely Doll' author Dare Wright, and more interestingly, her unique relationship with her mother. The author Jean Nathan has a habit of occasionally editorializing a little too much for non-fiction, but overall I found the book to be really well written, and the subject fascinating in a...more

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Suede rated it:

01/02/08

Read in December, 2007

I'm not so sure if this book really deserves 5 stars, but it was just SO CREEPY that I threw an extra star in there. I mean, Dare looks exactly like Edith, the Lonely Doll. And the Lonley Doll is named after her MOTHER. The mother that she slept beside when she was an adult, after an all day session of playing dress up. And she was in love (as in, I wanna marry you love) with her brother - and i can see why, HOTTIE! And she was raped by a hobo. Tragic, true, but you can't make this stuff up...more

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Catherine rated it:

08/07/08

Read in July, 2008

The poor woman. I didn't know the Lonely Doll books when I was a kid, but on occasion a parent will voice a complaint about them to me. I thought the strongest portions of the book were the author's analyses of the Lonely Doll books and (a)how they subconsciously worked through issues Dare Wright didn't have the will to admit to, and (b)the huge appeal the books have with young girls (which I'll subtly try to introduce to my Lonely Doll hatin' parents the next time it comes up).;

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Kelly rated it:

09/18/07

Read in November, 2005

recommends it for: Fans of biographies and the strange

This book is incredibly sad. Dare Wright is an example of what can happen if you don't cut the apron strings, parents! This was a woman of incredible beauty, grace, and creativity. If you think you have to be a little loony to gain fame by posing dolls for photographs and making stories about them, you would be right. Dare Wright really did live in a fantasy world, shaped by her overbearing mother.

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Annie rated it:

06/27/08

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: girls like me

Remember those creepy books of the bears with the doll and sometimes the bear would get all kinky and spank the little bears and the doll? They were black-and-white and the covers were kind of this pink gingham and I think I totally stole one from my school library (or at least I wanted to). This is the utterly fascinating and tragic story of the girl-woman behind them.

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emilie rated it:

07/05/08

Dare Wright truly deserved to be written about posthumously. A virgin seductress model photographer who created elaborate scenes with dolls and made them into children's stories. This book is very well written and interesting from start to finish.

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Sadie rated it:

04/22/08

Read in January, 2006

recommends it for: Anyone

Absorbing, distressing read. A real boon for those of us who loved The Lonely Doll as children, and certainly stays with you...but horrifying cautionary tale to anyone who might even think of having a daughter! Also: the author persistently describes the subject as 'beautiful' when there's ample photographic evidence to the contrary.

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Kayleen rated it:

07/30/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: Anyone familiar with the Lonely Doll

I have a strong and disturbing memory of reading the Lonely Doll for the first time. There was some thing deeply creepy about it. When I learned there was a biography of the author and it shed some light on the origin of the book I had to read it. I found The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll absorbing and well written.

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