num_pages: 352
description: An epic oral history of Hollywood and Los Angeles from the author of the contemporary classic Edie Jean Stein transformed the art of oral history in her groundbreaking book Edie: American Girl an indelible portrait of Andy Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick which was edited with George Plimpton. Now in West of Eden she turns to Los Angeles the city of her childhood. Stein vividly captures a mythic cast of characters: their ambitions and triumphs as well as their desolation and grief. These stories illuminate the bold aspirations of five larger-than-life individuals and their families. West of Eden is a work of history both grand in scale and intimate in detail. At the center of each family is a dreamer who finds fortune and strife in Southern California: Edward Doheny the Wisconsin-born oil tycoon whose corruption destroyed the reputation of a U.S. president and led to his own sons violent death; Jack Warner the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants who together with his brothers founded one of the worlds most iconic film studios; Jane Garland the troubled daughter of an aspiring actress who could never escape her mothers schemes; Jennifer Jones an actress from Oklahoma who won the Academy Award at twenty-five but struggled with despair amid her fame and glamour. Finally Stein chronicles the ascent of her own father Jules Stein an eye doctor born in Indiana who transformed Hollywood with the creation of an unrivaled agency and studio. In each chapter Stein paints a portrait of an outsider who pins his or her hopes on the nascent power and promise of Los Angeles. Each individuals unyielding intensity pushes loved ones especially children toward a perilous threshold. West of Eden depicts the city that has projected its own image of America onto the world in all its idealism and paradox. As she did in Edie Jean Stein weaves together the personal recollections of an array of individuals to create an astonishing tapestry of a place like no other.
language: English
title: West of Eden: An American Place
publisher: Random House