Clarke sent his research assistant to Columbia University’s library, where the publisher stores its archives, to see if there were any letters about the project. Nearly two decades ago, while researching a book about Judy Garland, biographer Gerald Clarke stumbled on an old gossip column noting that his subject was working on a memoir for Random House. ‘Yes or no, right now — that was his style,’ Judy recalled. I’ll break you if it’s the last thing I do.’ ”Besides being threatened and harassed, Garland was hounded to lose weight and made to feel ugly. There is an ironic and disturbing coda to Clarke’s discovery of the abuse Garland endured.

Source: thestar November 15, 2017 19:52 UTC