Be good to yourself and read this book. Women History is American history. This book helped me understand the contribitions
and the travails of American women: and that is White, African American and Native American. It's a loving and profound
contribution to the understanding of our times and our recent past.
Thank you Martha Saxton

Martha Saxton does a fairly good job for a simple basic chronological biography on Jayne. Saxton sticks to the point in the picture she has painted of Jayne. From Jayne's simple basic middle class upbringing to her zealous tinsel-town lifestyle once star struck in Hollywood. Many details of Jayne's personality and behavior I feel were left out or just indeed forgotten. My only argument is the argument many have had on the real fact whether Mansfield was really literally decapitated. Terrible rumors have flown around over the years that her head even ended up in the backseat of the car! The book said she was decapitated, however I have actually seen the death picture and the head was still attached from what I could tell. The ending of the book provided rather interesting information though about the settlement of the estate. Many of the more serious fans or collectors though may still be left somewhat hungry after reading this book. However I would still recommend reading it for those wanting to know whatever they can possibly find out about Mansfield as she was indeed a true Hollywood legend.

Martha Saxton's 'Jayne Mansfield And The American Fifties' is a fascinating, deeply probing biography on the short, tragic life of a Hollywood ... symbol. Ms.Saxton does extensive research and interviews with all the surviving key players in Jayne Mansfield's life and career,and is able to fit all the pieces of this puzzle together for a well rounded portrait of the star. The author illuminates the tail end of Hollywood's golden age, and how a brunette girl from Texas became a Hollywood blonde bombshell and star! Martha Saxton points out that unlike Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield could speak three languages and showed real acting talent!
This is the book to buy on Jayne Mansfield.

Having done a good deal of research on Louisa May Alcott, I would call Martha Saxton's work -the soap opera biography. She takes liberties with her source material such as utilizing the freshman english paper style of pulling quotes out of context and with the ever helpful ...uses them to support some National Enquirer type inferences and some pretty out there theories. It makes for a juicy read, but she comes to some highly questionable if not bizarre conclusions. Even the Orchard House, home of the Alcotts, will not sell this book due to the poor scholarship and that should tell you something. Still best biography is Madeleine B. Stern's - thorough, well done and highly recommended over Saxton's questionable attempt.

The world that Louisa May Alcott lived in was amazing--personal family friends included Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, etc. Unfortunately, this isn't a terrific biography because the author falls into an "overquoting" pattern. Instead of making the story flow and drawing conclusions from the family's extensive journals, Saxton just endlessly quotes passages. It grew tedious. For an excellent biography that doesn't fall into this trap, check out "Lindberg" by A. Scott Berg.

I grew up on Louisa May Alcott's books-- and wanted to "BE" Jo March. Well, Saxton's biography traces the parts of Jo that are Alcott, and points out the important differences between the fiction Alcott created and the life she lived. The biography points out Alcott's troubled relationship with her family, her need to support them and feel important, and her severe disabilities later in life (the time she was writing most of her work) because of a "Mercury Cure." Saxton takes quite an antagonistic view towards Bronson Alcott, and her sympathies are quite "feminist" in origin-- but all in all, this book will be a great read, and teach you a lot about this incredible, under-rated writer who is a part of our cultural heritage.