Flicka's Friend; The Autobiography of Mary O'Hara

New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1982. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Format is approximately 5.75 inches by 8.75 inches. 284, [4] pages. Illustrations. Inscribed on half-title by Kent and Dierdre Parrot, believed to be her son, Kent Parrot. Clearly a family association, perhaps from O'Hara's first husband. Gift note signed by Kent and Dierdre Parrot laid in. Cut signature of author pasted on title-page (this autobiography was published posthumously so there are no actually signed copies). Mary O'Hara Alsop (July 10, 1885 - October 14, 1980) was an American author and screenwriter. She married her third cousin, Kent Kane Parrot, in 1905 against her father's wishes. Following the end of her marriage to Parrot, Mary O'Hara worked as a Hollywood screenwriter during the silent film era. Her screenwriting credits included the movies The Last Card (1921), The Prisoner of Zenda (1922), Braveheart (1925), and Framed (1927). Her best known and loved works were: My Friend Flicka (1941), Thunderhead (1943), and Green Grass of Wyoming (1946). Derived from a Kirkus review: This is a tart, curtly eloquent, posthumous memoir. Marriage #1--to handsome distant lawyer/cousin Kent--was a well-bred disaster: Father disapproved. Childbirths were horrific; physical love was a grim disappointment; Los Angeles life was arid, with jealous outbursts from Kent. The misery of divorce followed. Mary found solace in writing music (for profit) and in her quiet rise as an in-demand writer for Hollywood silents. And Hollywood brought husband #2: Helge, a Swedish refugee/film-extra who claimed royal blood and dreamed of Wyoming ranches--which led to Mary's horse life, to Flicka and its successors. The celebrity years, however, also brought divorce #2 and frustrations in trying to bring a Wyoming musical to Broadway. For those without preconceptions: a vivid memoir by a remarkable, subtly strange woman--sharply phrased, edgily candid, with evocative glimpses of such varied worlds as 1890s European spas, 1920s Hollywood, and N.Y. publishing in the '30s.