Jacqueline Susann: Profile of an Audacious Novelist

Debates about writing embrace the need for an author to find their "voice." Novelist Jacqueline Susann possessed that "voice" well before it ever became a buzz word in the writer's realm. Susann proved most masterful in her reeling and controversial 1966 novel Valley of the Dolls.

Susann staggered book lovers with her tales of drug addiction, tacky sex, and lesbian relationships. It took me months to read Valley of the Dolls. I was only 10. Reading was done under my mother's bed when she wasn't around. That's where she failingly hid the racy novel from her inquisitive kids.

Susann's storytelling suggested a world far removed from the one this country bumpkin lived in. In my world, dolls were toys. I dressed them in frilly outfits. I played make believe with them. In Jacqueline Susann's world, "dolls" were pills…uppers and downers. It was intriguing and scary at the same time.

When I was older, I read somewhere that Jacqueline Susann typed her manuscripts on pink paper. I thought that was very cool.

Jacqueline Susann's Beginnings

Susann was proficient at writing scandalous, drug-filled, jet setter escapades. However, her young years were ordinary…no glam or glitz in her life that would encourage her future writing. She was born in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 20, 1918 to Robert (Bob) and Rose Susann. The author died of cancer in New York City in 1974.

Susann's mother, Rose was an educator. She hoped her daughter would follow in her footsteps. The enthusiastic Jacqueline had no intention of becoming a teacher. She was bent on being an actress. After high school, she snubbed college altogether, and headed to New York City. That was in 1936.

As an aspiring actress, Jacqueline Susann discovered that Broadway was a bust. She did appear in 21 plays, though. She also met publicist Irving Mansfield. They married in 1943. He became his wife's manager. The couple had one son who was diagnosed with autism. Sadly, the child was institutionalized.

Susann co-wrote a play with Beatrice Cole titled Lovely Me. It took nearly seven years, but it opened on stage in November in Philadelphia and on Broadway on Christmas night in 1946.

Susann's first book, which was published in 1963, was Every Night, Josephine! It is a somewhat humorous piece of nonfiction. The story is based on adventures she had with her poodle. This is my least favorite of Susann's work.

Critics Were Hard on Susann

It's no secret that Susann's chart buster novel Valley of the Dolls was kicked to the curb by slews of critics. A 1967 New York Times review of the movie version of the book fared miserably, too. For me, the mystique of the taboo subject matter was the oddly disturbing lure of the story. Others simply did not glean what I did from the book.

Maybe some could not grasp the sad beauty in the life lessons the novel insensitively dumped on its readers. Despite the naysayers, Susann produced a novel that enticed over 20 million readers to buy her book.

Critics aside again, Susann had three back-to-back New York Times best-sellers: Valley of the Dolls (1966), The Love Machine (1969), and Once is Not Enough (1973). After her death, Irving Mansfield published and promoted his wife's books Delores (1976), and Yargo (1979).

Unnerving Portrayal of January Wayne

In Once is Not Enough, Susann brazenly persuades readers to teeter on the sympathetic precipice of an unhealthy father/daughter relationship.

The story focuses on the disconcerting dilemma of the young and emotionally delicate January Wayne: She courts abnormal feelings for her farther, Mike. The fixation she has on her dad makes it difficult for her to have a normal relation with a man.

The idea that a daughter might harbor an infatuation for her father was inappropriate. However, just like the crazy lives of the women in Valley of the Dolls drew me in, I was spellbound. I respect Susann's courageous portrayal of the perplexing parent and child relationship.

The Indomitable Susann

Susann was an electrifying novelist. Regardless of what some critics might believe, I feel she was a momentous influence as a female writer.

Susann is not likely to make the literary genius list. She was definitely not Emily Bronte. I like to imagine, though, that Emily Bronte, who was audacious in her own right, was cheering Jacqueline Susann on to the end.