SLIM: Memoirs of a Rich and Imperfect Life

by Slim with Annette Tapert Keith ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 29, 1990

Socialite Keith, who died recently, leaves behind a charming, sharp-edged memoir. Nancy Gross was born in 1917 in Salinas, Cal. Because she was considered excessively thin, on finishing high school she was sent to convalesce at an inn in Death Valley. There she met William Powell, who nicknamed her ""Slim Princess"" and took her under his wing. In 1938, she met Howard Hawks, one of Hollywood's most successful directors; three years later, they married. Through Hawks, she met Hemingway (a friend until his death). Meanwhile, Slim screened scripts; ""discovered"" Lauren Bacall on the cover of Harper's Bazaar; and endured her husband's infidelity. She left Hawks for producer Leland Hayward, cemented friendships with Bill and Babe Paley, Jerome Robbins, and Truman Capote (that friendship ended with the 1975 publication of ""La Cote Basque""--with a Slim-like character as narrator). Her Final marriage was to aristocratic British businessman Kenneth Keith, a humorless bore who dragged her on rainy shooting expeditions and wouldn't talk ox let her play the radio when they went on car trips. The saddest thing about leaving him, she says, was saying goodbye to his butler, Mordecai. Keith's sketches of friends like Hemingway and Capote are illuminating; she freely admits her own missteps (passing on the script that eventually became Casablanca; falling for elusive, distant men); praises those she loves; and says exactly what she likes about those (her husbands' other women, especially) whom she despises. Her crisp, entertaining voice and storytelling fluency make it easy to understand why there was, as Kenneth Keith complained, always laughter at her end of the dinner table.

Pub Date: June 29, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1990

Categories: NONFICTION