Ferber: Edna Ferber and Her Circle

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Ferber
Review: Biography written by a family member or friend so often is mere hagiography, not good biography. But the book by Julie Gilbert, Edna Ferber's great-niece, was the only Ferber biography I could find, so I decided I would start there to learn about Ferber, and I'm really glad I did. Is the Gilbert book objective? Of course not. No one writes objective biography.

I applaud Gilbert for her courage in presenting Ferber as a real person, exposing the extremes of her personality. Ferber was outsized-she had a benevolent heart coupled with colossal rage: "When Ferber got worked up over an issue, there was nobody who could touch her. She was a dervish of indignation. When she was calm she exuded power; when she was upset she exuded great power." Katherine Hepburn, twenty years Ferber's junior, says: "We were dangerous women. There aren't any more of us around."

I give the book only four stars for two reasons: One, because I wish Gilbert had included photos. I love the image that Gilbert writes of Ferber and her sister Fan looking together like a Diane Arbus photo: "visually similar and visually sour." A picture of these two together would have added a lot to the book; and two, because Gilbert doesn't include sources. Perhaps most of Ferber's papers are still in the family's control; regardless, I would like to have known where Gilbert found her information.

That being said, I would recommend this book for anyone interested in Edna Ferber, and also in New York, theater, and party life of the 1930s. Whee, Ferb! Wot a girl!


Rating:
Summary: Ferber & American Literature
Review: Is there a renaissance of interest in the writings of Edna Ferber? Stamps were minted honoring her this past summer [2002], and now the reissuance of this biography, written by Ferber's greatniece and originally published about 1978. I hope this indicates a resurgence of interest in her writings -- but you would be better served to read Ferber's writings themselves, than this biography.

I've been in love with the writings of Edna Ferber since I was 12 and someone gave me a used edition of "Amreican Beauty". I realize that she won't go down in the annals of the classics of American literature, such as Faulkner or even Carson McCullers: her writing lacks the quality of universality, and I suppose, self-discovery [on the reader's part]. But she is great at the sociology of America, at giving the reader an intuitive feel or understanding of an era or people. I even did my first term paper in high school on her: "The Effects of Minority Races on the Writing of Edna Ferber" -- and I still remember with pleasure the note the instructor wrote, to the effect that my love for Ferber's writings was apparent.

So although I had read reviews to the effect that Ms. Gilbert did not let her closeness to her aunt affect her objectivity, I couldn't resist reading it. I was prepared for her to be critical. I was not prepared for her to be vindictive and viperish. She related Ferber's life backwards: 1960 to 1968, 1952 to 1960, 1938 to 1950, 1916 to 1938, etc. -- so you begin by seeing her as a crochety old lady [and indeed, this was the bulk of the book, rather than the period in which Ferber was writing -- although I suppose it is understandable, as that is when Ms. Gilbert would have known her] without having any idea what made her that way.

What did come out was that Miss Ferber took over of the support of her extended family [besides her mother: her sister, her sister's 2 children, and their children] -- and that the family felt some guilt at this, and I felt Ms. Gilbert's book was an attempt to whitewash the family's guilt, saying in effect, "See, it wasn't easy for us, we had to put up with this disagreeable old lady." When she sticks to facts, it isn't too bad; but she's always jumping to pseudo-freudian conclusions, or attaching a moralistic interpretation to the actions of others. For example, although she quotes letters of praise from Noel Coward [who was not a person to suffer fools gladly] fairly frequently, she usually adds that the work "wasn't Ferber's best" [I wonder what she did feel was her best?] and that he undoubtedly did it out of friendship. She makes numerous allusions to a freudian problem which Miss Ferber had in her relationship with her mother, but during her tale of the early part of Ferber's life, never mentions anything to provide support or justification for such comments. If someone outside the family had written it, I'm sure they would be subject to a lawsuit for libel and inneundo.

The biography is entitled "Ferber and her Circle", but is only tangentially about her "circle".