West of Eden: An American Place

By Jean Stein

Categories: History

Jean Stein, daughter of the MCA founder Jules Stein, assembles a portrait of Los Angeles from interviews about five wealthy families and individuals: the oil baron Edward Doheny and his heirs, the Warners, the heiress Jane Garland, the actress Jennifer Jones and the Steins. Voices including Joan Didion, Gore Vidal, Arthur Miller, Dennis Hopper and Lauren Bacall, along with relatives, friends and butlers, recall ambition, wealth, dysfunction and tragedy in a city built on oil, film and real estate.

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• Ryan Holiday: “I re-read Raymond Chandler's The High Window (it was mentioned in West of Eden).”