'Have you heard of the The Lonely Doll? For my birthday one year, my friend Drew presented me with a reissued copy of A Gift From the Lonely Doll and these solemn words: “You need this book.” It was one in a series of ten "lonely Doll" books by the late photographer/author/model Dare Wright, the first of which was originally published in 1957 with a trademark pink-and-white gingham cover. The story was told via beautiful black-and-white photographs of a curious doll named Edith and her teddy bear friends, Mr. Bear and Little Bear.
'Like so many children’s books, A Gift From the Lonely Doll was an aching mix of absurd and profound. But there was also something unsettling about its images of dolls come to life. Why was this little doll knitting a scarf for a stuffed bear? Why did she have to go shopping for the yarn in the city all by herself? Why was her skirt so short, and why was she so frequently photographed from behind? My first flip through the book stirred a sense of strange familiarity—I intuitively understood this peculiar universe, yet it creeped me out and left me wanting to close the book and back away, kind of how I felt as a kid after watching too many Twilight Zone episodes on a Sunday afternoon. When Drew pointed out the author’s photograph on the book jacket, I got quiet. Dare Wright looked exactly like little Edith.
'Edith was named after Dare’s mother, who gave her daughter the felt Lenci doll when Dare was just a child. Years later, Dare unearthed the doll from a trunk, and like Edie Sedgwick to Andy Warhol, little Edith became Dare’s blank slate. She created a blonde wig for her, added small gold hoop earrings similar to her own, and dressed her up in a pink-and-white gingham outfit that she’d made by hand. Soon Edith came to bear an uncanny resemblance to the photographer herself. The side-eye of the Lenci allowed her expression to go from quizzical and innocent to complete bitchface with a slight change of perspective, and Dare proceeded to depict little Edith in a variety of scenes: opening the door to greet the two bears, brushing her hair while gazing into a mirror, hanging out at the beach, standing at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, dressed up as hippies protesting city pollution, tied up to a tree and gagged—YES.
'The story behind the stories is a whole other story — a true gothic tale. On the surface, Dare’s life was super glamorous. Her mother, Edith (aka Edie) Stevenson Wright, was a successful portrait painter for whom dignitaries and celebrities like Dwight Eisenhower and Greta Garbo once sat. Dare was intelligent and beautiful, and Edie taught her how to paint, draw, and sew. A high school teacher pushed her into acting and then modeling, but she became interested in the camera, and soon became a fashion photographer for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.
'The portrait of Dare that emerges from Nathan’s biography is of a sad and troubled woman. Growing up, Dare felt the absence of her father and her brother, whom she’d last seen when she was three and her parents divorced. Her mother retained custody of Dare, but she worked a lot, and Dare was left home alone with instructions to “keep the door locked” for hours on end. Edie dissuaded Dare from making friends, and the two often played dress-up, photographing each other in gowns and other outfits, and Edie encouraged Dare to pose nude during their summer vacations (in other accounts, it is Dare who orchestrated these shoots, while Edith merely clicked the shutter).
'Dare eventually reconnected with her brother, Blaine, and was briefly engaged to one of his friends, but the bio suggests her affections were directed toward her sibling, and that their relationship was intense and “highly charged.” Dare remained close to her mother—they often slept together when they stayed at Dare’s apartment in New York, or on their many vacations. After Edie died in 1975, Dare became a recluse and an alcoholic. According to Nathan, she may have remained a virgin all her life. She was reportedly raped by a stranger when she was about 80; after that she moved into a public hospital in Queens, New York, where she lived out the last six years of her life. She died in 2001 at the age of 86.'-- Rookie Magazine
Dare Wright NYC exhibition (walk-through)
Dare Wright~The Lonely Doll Author & Those She Loved
Tosh Talks: DARE WRIGHT
Kodagain 'Dare Wright'
Dare Wright in Central Park
'Actress Famke Janssen says that an intruder broke into her home in New York City and left a creepy children’s book called, The Lonely Doll next to her bed. Despite the fact that Janssen says she has never seen the book in her life, detectives believe that it is actually Janssen’s book and that there was no intrusion involved. A source said, “They [detectives] believe that the book belongs to Janssen. The book has some connection to her home.”
'Janssen originally told the police that she discovered the book after coming home from running errands on August 1. She filed a report at the First Precinct station house two days later. “She walked into her bedroom and noticed a children’s book standing on the shelf beside her bed,” a source said. However, after investigating the situation and watching surveillance videos thoroughly , police have found no evidence that anyone broke into her home.
'“There is nobody suspicious” and “all the people on the video are accounted for,” said the law enforcement. Also, police said they found a “to-do” list hidden between the pages of the book with Janssen’s name on it. Janssen is not expected to be charged for filing a false report because she actually believes that someone broke into her home and left the book.'-- collaged
'Following the news of actress Famke Janssen's unsettling Greenwich Village home invasion, in which a copy of the 1957 children's book The Lonely Doll was placed near her bed, the story can't help but take on a new eeriness. But Wright's only living heir and the owner of her estate doesn't want people to get the wrong idea. "My Google Alert is just going nuts," Brook Ashley, who considered Wright her "surrogate mother," told Daily Intelligencer today. "But I want to separate the crime from the book." As for Janssen's unwanted houseguest, "Perhaps the person who left it there is saying, 'I can be your friend, too. Let me into your lonely life the way Edith let the two bears into hers.' That is creepy! Not the book, but the offering," said Ashley. "That's the most logical interpretation, but it is disquieting," she said. "Why The Lonely Doll? This is like a Castle episode or something." If she could speak to Janssen, "I would say I hope she reads it at some point to see it's not terrifying," said Ashley. "No one left a Stephen King book. I wonder if it was the first edition, which is quite valuable," she added. "I guess it's sitting in a police evidence locker right now."'-- NY Magazine
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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Top of the morning, sir. Yeah, I read that Will Self whine in think-piece form. Guy doesn't seem to get out much. ** Steevee, Excellent that the interview went so well. A friend is burning me 'The Immigrant', so at least I'll get to see that. Also, I spaced and didn't realize he directed 'Little Odessa', which I have seen and thought was very good. Sorry from your stress-filled home imprisonment day. I hate when that happens. ** Cobaltfram, Howdy, John. Yeah, I'm a bundle of nerves/excitement/etc. for sure. We have a finished script, yes, originally written about 6 years ago by me then rewritten last year with Zac. It's subject to all kinds of alterations during the rehearsing and shooting process, but it's solid for now. The filming will be partly very organized in advance and partly very intuitive. Zac is kind of a visionary, so he'll have the freedom to invent and improvise the visual component as he wishes in the moment. I'm not surprised about the 'Marienbad' pre-planning so much, knowing the way R-G worked. 'Dear Stars' sounds very Wagner from what I remember of what I read -- all the playing. Glad it's working so well on you. Did the minutes provide you with the Billfold piece's finish line as expected? Cool. I stay away from Twitter for the most part even as a visitor because it does feel like like a major time and brain vacuum, partly to its credit, I guess. Nothing wrong with being strategic, I don't think. More catching soon, indeed, I hope. ** Tosh Berman, It is such a beauty, right? Lynne's book. I think 'Nicola, Milan' comes out in June or something, but you can preorder it now or try to snag a galley from Hedi. ** Torn porter, Hey, man. 'Crystal Eaters' is super interesting, the game influence/input, the writing, etc. You go to London later this week? Just briefly, right? Tomorrow's bad for me. Heavy film work day. It's gonna be a bit crazed until we find the second performer for the 1st scene, hopefully this week, although I fear not. So, if nothing else, once you get back, for sure. Weird about your exploding prof. Wtf?! Your presence and energy seemed most impressive and generous to me. I've seen the enticing poster for 'Tom à la ferme', and I saw that it's playing at that cool theater next to the Pompidou, and I decided to go see it, but I haven't yet. Report? Ha ha, awesome playlist! Tell Ratty thanks a bunch for me! ** Schoolboyerrors, Oh, gosh, thank you, D. But there's so much great stuff coming out now that I could do those posts several times a week if I wasn't so crunched for reading time. LT's book is very wunderbar for sure. The Juliet Escoria book is really nice. Weird, and coincidentally, believe it or not, she just interviewed me by Skype this very morning for Fanzine. She's very cool. I'll go check that JE/SMcC interview, thanks! Dude, nice: you and the wilds, and you and that particular relationship with the wilds, and the adjectives you chose, all of which added up to pleasure central. My new novel is going very well, I think. It's very different than my earlier novels, or it feels very different. It's completely grounded in the personal and autobiographical, much moreso than I've allowed myself to do before. It's extremely different from 'TMS', apart from furthering my exploration of longer, more discursive sentences, but in a totally different way. It has small, imbedded, illustrative, interconnected narratives in certain sections but no overall narrative. It's exciting and very challenging to write. I don't think I want to talk about what it's 'about' yet, mostly because it would be very difficult to describe its 'about-ness' with any economy and partly because it's one of those novels that's happening because I don't know of any other way than the novel I'm writing to represent what it's about. If that makes sense. Thank you a lot for asking, man. With love back. ** les mots dans le nom, Hi. When you get the time, Lynne's book is very worth reading. That's okay about the post, of course. Oh, okay, about doctors and self-care. I understand. I haven't been to see a doctor in forever. I really dis-enjoy that experience too. ** Sypha, That Clark Ashton Smith prose does seem very up your alley. It's impressive in its way, for sure. Cool about mailing off the mss. to RS. Fingers crossed. I would say 400,000 words sounds big enough, yes. Whoa. That might be bigger than all my novels put together ha ha. ** Zach, Hi, Z! Great to see you! Tillman and Amen Dunes, for sure, The new AD is quite interesting, different, much more planned out than I've heard his work be before. Your Herzog-focused bike mate thing is cool. You must have given off heady vibes. Yeah, good to see you! ** Postitbreakup, Hi, Josh. Gosh, well, I would hope you've changed since 9th grade, and playfulness is something that evolves and shows its evidence differently over time, I think. I don't know. Just in terms of aesthetics, the double circularity of the relationship interests me, but I'm being too writerly when I think that. I think your idea of making a book about the borderline experience sounds great and fascinating. Granted, I love the editing and revising process, but I felt excitement that you have all that material to work with. But if it's really painful, yeah, I don't know. Having forced myself into a very painful state to to try to write that novel about George Miles a couple of years ago and ended up a wreck with only a total, unusable novel-length mess to show for it was not a great experience. Thank you for being here/there all these years, my friend. ** Rewritedept, Hi. I saw a gig at the Anaheim HoB once. What was it ... ? Oh, GbV and that band that Spiral Stairs had for a while post-Pavement. It was a less offensive a place than, say, the West Hollywood HoB, which is, one, too big, and, two, way, way too Frontierland/Disneyland. My Monday was very film-work-oriented for the most part. I did get to have an excellent vegetarian Indian meal and wander around Paris a bit with Zac between work stints. And got some novel writing in. It was good. No, I did not know q and not u before. I'd never even heard of them unless I was/am spacing. ** Cap'm, Hi, Cap'm! Ha ha, wow, cool about your extended ruminations on clarity. Cool because I ruminate about clarity all the time. Clarity ruminating is the inward spiral of my life. Or one of them. If that was your vomit in the comments area, lean over here any old time. I am indeed honored by 'a permanently wide-open masonry eyeball', how did you know? That would almost make a good book title or poem title or almost Robert Pollard song title or something. You rule, buddy, thanks! ** Gotcha. Maybe look into Dare Wright today if you feel like it. Thanks. See you tomorrow.