Greta Garbo: A Life Apart

Drawing on key new sources, here is the first biography of Garbo written from a woman's perspective. Karen Swenson gives exclusive insights into the star's struggles with movie executives at MGM and with her mentor, Mauritz Stiller, as well as her bisexuality--aspects of her life often overlooked or treated as unimportant details. Here is the woman behind the myth, accompanied by rare, candid photos, some never before published. 32 pages of photos.

A Life Apart is the apt subtitle of this scrupulously researched biography of the star as legendary for her fiercely guarded privacy as for her haunting beauty and luminous acting in such films as Camille and Ninotchka. Entertainment writer Karen Swenson delineates a unique personality considerably earthier than Greta Garbo's screen image: shy yet blunt, devoted to her craft but indifferent to fame, sexually magnetic to both men and women, a loyal friend who mercilessly punished disloyalty. The author meticulously fact-checked the often unreliable memories of companions and lovers such as Cecil Beaton and Mercedes de Acosta to comprehensively document Garbo's long life (1905-90).