When Jacqueline Susann's debut novel, Valley of the Dolls, was published in 1966, the charismatic 48-year-old former actress visited 250 bookstores across the country and charmed local and national media. Five weeks later, Valley of the Dolls hit the New York Times bestseller list and stayed there for 65 weeks--seven months at #1. It eventually sold more than 30 million copies, and for more than two decades, The Guinness Book of Records crowned it the bestselling novel of all time.
Valley of the Dolls tapped into an audience of people who didn't normally buy or read books. A roman à clef page-turner set in the glamorous and ruthless world of Hollywood and Broadway, Valley spans two decades, following the lives, loves and careers of three young women and their growing dependency on alcohol and prescription pills (aka "dolls"). It was a racy read in the mid-1960s, and while readers clamored for it, early critics dismissed it as a dirty book. Nora Ephron gave the novel one of its few positive reviews, calling it "a very, very long, absolutely delicious gossip column full of nothing but blind items." But respect for Susann's writing grew over the years. Camille Paglia recently called Valley of the Dolls "one of the great books of the postwar era. The kind of language that she uses and the kind of imagination she has are totally contemporary."
Grove Press has just released Valley of the Dolls: 50th Anniversary Edition in both hardcover ($27; 9780802125354) and paperback ($16; 9780802125347). The new edition contains bonus material: Susann's 1966 essay "My Book Is Not Dirty!," an introduction by Simon Doonan and a preface (with photos) by Lisa Bishop and Whitney Robinson, directors of the Susann archives. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant