William Arnold (1) (1945–)

This "biography" was the basis for the movie "Frances" in the 1980s (for which Jessica Lange won an academy award). William Arnold sued the movie's producers because he claimed that they violated the copyright on his novel (you read that right: novel). Here's where things get interesting: during the trial Arnold testified that much of the "biography" was "fictionalized" (a key part of his lawsuit, because biography can't be copyrighted). Please go the Jeffrey Kauffman's fine website, Shedding Light on Shadowland (http://jeffreykauffman.net/francesfarmer/sheddinglight.html) for an exact parsing of truth and fiction.

As far as I know, there are there books extant that claim to provide the real story of Frances Farmer's life, and all of them are in some way compromised: 1) Will There Really Be a Morning (the "autobiorgraphy" that is a frustrating farrago of fact and fiction, FF's fine writing and Jeanira Ratcliffe's purple prose), 2) Shadowlands, qv supra, and 3) Looking Back in Love, by Edith Farmer Elliott, which is a well-meaning revision of Frances's story that unfortunately tries too hard to sweep FF's real life dirt under a bland rug of euphemism and evasion. Believe it or not, Patrick Agan's, The Decline and Fall of the Love Goddesses, contains the largest published selection of FF's writing. It's worth purchasing his book for that info alone.… (mais)