PRAISE FOR CAPTAIN OF HER SOUL
“Gabrielle’s narrative is a breezy, colorful saga of Old Hollywood . . . . and a touching romance between two flawed, magnetic personalities. Film buffs will want to check this one out.”
–Publisher’s Weekly
“Davies was a fierce woman who blazed a trail amidst a Hollywood increasingly dominated by powerful men. At last, she is treated with the respect and reverence she merits through Gabrielle’s writing.”
–Entertainment Weekly
“An entertaining, first-rate biography that necessarily serves . . . . as a corrective to Hollywood myth.”
–Air Mail Weekly
“Lara Gabrielle finally buries the canard that Marion Davies was anything like Orson Welles’s Susan Alexander from Citizen Kane. With hard-earned access to Davies’s family and friends, Gabrielle has created a deeply sourced, delightfully told story of a rich, complicated life. With Captain of Her Soul, we finally meet Marion Davies as her own woman—talented, funny, generous, and a wonderful friend.”
– Cari Beauchamp, author of Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood
“Author Gabrielle has given us a gift: an honest biography of a woman whose life and career have long been misunderstood. . . . In short, this is the book Marion Davies has always deserved.”
-Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian
“It is so refreshing to discover a book on Marion Davies filled with affection and admiration, – yet harsh when it needs to be, and always impressively researched. It has taught me so much.”
Kevin Brownlow, film preservationist and historian
“Now, finally, there is a deeply researched and fair-minded biography of Davies’s life and movie work . . . . Gabrielle, like a detective or an archaeologist, has reconstructed a life history and made a convincing case . . . . that Marion was a complex, happy, and talented actress . . . . her love affair with W.R. Hearst was genuine, long-lasting, and intensely satisfying.”
-William Randolph Hearst, III in Alta Journal
“Gabrielle’s research is impressive. . . . [she] points out that Davies’s motto came from William Ernest Henley’s famous poem, ‘Invictus,’ which deals with the struggle to overcome vicissitudes and to triumph: ‘It matters not how strait the gate, / How charged with punishment the scroll, / I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul.’”
–The New York Sun
“One of the most striking qualities of Captain of Her Soul is how the author powerfully portrays the actress’s spirit through the pages. . . .a must-read.”
—The Wonderful World of Cinema
“Gabrielle’s book proves to be a fascinating read, from start to finish. The author documents the glamorous and epic parties at San Simeon, giving readers a picture of Hollywood’s golden era. She also reveals the complicated, but enduring romance between Hearst and Davies.”
—Pop Culture Classics