Throughout her ups and downs, despite four children, a divorce, depression, and a job, mysteriously my mother finds time to write. She publishes three novels between 1956 and 1962. Despite good reviews from the critics, none of them sell well.
There is a family myth that one of Mom’s books came out the same week as Peyton Place, a potboiler which was a runaway hit that stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 59 weeks. That would explain how Mom’s book is lost in the dust. This turns out not to be the case. Mom’s The Whipping Boy is published in January of 1956, while Peyton Place comes out in September of that year, both from the same publisher, Julian Messner.
A number of glam shots were taken
of my mother for her books.
See the Forest is published in 1959 by Julian Messner and My Father’s House in 1962 from Harper and Brothers.
In 1961, a stage version of The Whipping Boy premieres off Broadway as Call Me by My Rightful Name, adapted to the stage by playwright Michael Shurtleff. My mother gets some fun out of it, going to New York as development is in progress. I suspect she has an affair with Michael, but I could be wrong. At the premiere of the play, Michael gives her the cold shoulder. Hmmm. She thinks perhaps he hasn’t told anyone the play was based on her book, but the credit appears in the Playbill.
The play runs for 127 performances and stars Robert Duvall, Alvin Ailey, and Joan Hackett. Ms. Hackett wins three awards for her performance: a Theater World Award, an Obie, and a Drama Desk Award.
The cast of the play included Joan Hackett, Alvin Ailey and Robert Duvall in
his debut on the stage.
Mom never tells us this part.
It’s hard to imagine how Shirley could have carved out the time to write, not to mention complete three novels in those years. And it’s particularly odd when you compare the dedications in these books. The Whipping Boy (1956) was dedicated to her lover John, who would eventually become my stepfather, two years before Shirley and Guy divorce in 1958.
Awkward.
The second novel, See the Forest (1959) has a dedication to my father, the year after the divorce is final. And My Father’s House (1962) is dedicated to Kitty W., a friend of my mother’s. This is particularly baffling to me. When the divorce goes through, my mother is shunned by all her friends. And Kitty W. is the worst offender. She invites Mom to a party and two days later calls back and dis-invites her, because their other friends refuse to come if she is there.
This could be a preemptive strike. My mother is beautiful and newly single, presumably on the make. Perhaps these women fear that she will come after their husbands.
Uh, come on, girls, no need to worry there!
My mother reconciles with some of these women even though theirs is a bitter betrayal. Within 10 years, more than half of them are divorced themselves. And Kitty lives her life married to a man who is a prodigious womanizer (trust me, ewww!) who can’t keep his nork in his pants
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