Jean Nathan’s biography of Dare Wright (which, by the way, is a very good read in and of itself) doesn’t shy away from discussing the toxic psychology at play in Dare Wright’s family but she also doesn’t belabor the point, stating simply why A led to B. Nathan became fascinated with Dare Wright as an adult, when she found herself remembering The Lonely Doll from her own childhood. Before the Internet Age, she was forced to go to an actual book store – one devoted to children’s books – and ask about it and was surprised when the clerk told her it was both out of print and not very popular due to it’s un-PC spanking scene. Nathan didn’t remember the spanking scene at all. Many adults do not. But then plenty of adults remember the book as a frightening look into whatever childhood misery informed their early life. For some of those (mostly) women, the book is a text on female acquiescence to male power and authority. For others, it’s a look at frightening family dynamics and possible abuse. But for some it’s a look at a lovely modern home that stands somewhere between real and fantasy life, populated with adorable toys doing fun things with the occasional Tom Sawyer-like spanking when the little dolls acted up a bit too much. Some saw the Lonely Doll as the embodiment of a single woman in a big city, making her own family, having adventures, enjoying her life.

Nathan’s deep look into Dare Wright’s life shines a lot of light on The Lonely Doll for those of us who absolutely need to wring out every drop of information when a charming picture book catches our eye. The biography itself is a great read, and it’s going to be hard to restrain myself from discussing the entire book, but I think I can rein myself in and stick to just the information that answers the whys asked of The Lonely Doll and Dare Wright. Maybe.

Bare bones background. Dare Wright was born in 1914 to portrait artist Edith Stevenson and failed actor/writer/farmer Ivan Leonard Wright. Married in 1910, they also had a son named Blaine in 1912, and the marriage dissolved in 1917 when Ivan abandoned Edith and moved to New York. Their marriage had been marred by financial difficulties that caused them to continually move around, and Edith, also called Edie, became so estranged from her family during this time that she was forced to send Blaine to stay with his paternal grandmother, who in turn sent him to live with his father. When the divorce was final, Edie sent word to Ivan that she never wanted to see or hear from him or Blaine ever again, and she never again married or even had a serious romantic relationship. Dare tracked her brother down 25 years later, but her father had died before she finally reconnected with Blaine.

Dare had several courtships in her life, and was even engaged to marry a pilot when he returned from duty in WWII. The pilot was one of Blaine’s best friends, and the union seemed a good idea but Dare was uninterested in sexual intimacy. The pilot had an affair with a married woman and when Dare found out she ended the engagement. Her education was spotty at best but she was intelligent, very artistic like her mother, and capable of learning all sorts of useful skills. She attempted to become a professional model and actress but lacked the drive to pull it off and The Lonely Doll was her attempt to establish herself as a writer and photographer. Though her books were and still are quite successful, Dare’s personal life was far less so. She never had a sexual relationship, remained more or less with her mother in some manner until Edie died, and descended into alcoholism and died after several years as a severe invalid, requiring constant hospitalization.

This is a part of a much longer discussion of this book on Odd Things Considered. If you would like to read the entire thing, click here: https://www.oddthingsconsidered.com/oddtober-2020-the-secret-life-of-the-lonely-...

If you were a girlchild of the 1950s, The Lonely Doll was on your nightstand. It told the story in pictures of Edith, a glamorous doll living on her own, who is befriended by two teddy bears, Mr. Bear and Little Bear, and they become a family. There was always something creepily fascinating about it, maybe the fact that since the illustrations were all photos, I took it as fact, as opposed to books with drawings, which meant fiction to me. There was also the shock of seeing Edith, with her grown-up hoop earrings , getting spanked by Mr. Bear, neither of which, the spanking nor the earrings, had never happened to me. Somehow The Lonely Doll always haunted me, and I was not alone. Jean Nathan, the author, tried tracking down the book in the early '90s and ended up finding the author, Dare Wright, as well, right before her death by alcoholism. Researching Dare's background, she learned that her parents, Edith and Ivan, separated early on in their marriage, with Ivan keeping custody of older son Blaine and daughter Dare living with Edith. The children were not allowed to contact each other until after Ivan's death, as adults. Edith was a renowned society portrait artist based in Cleveland, and she and Dare were inseparable, sleeping in the same bed until Dare moved to New York and became a model and a photographer. Edith resented Blaine and he despised his mother for ignoring him and keeping the siblings apart. Dare was unable to form romantic or sexual attachments due to Edith's demands for all of her time and attention. Edith was a monster in the mode of another mother/daughter symbiotic hellish matchup, Edith (!) and Little Edie Beall of Grey Gardens fame. This is a fascinating study of the outcome of maternal selfishness, and Dare's success as an author and photographer did little to make for a happy or fulfilling life. ( )

Kinda nothing happens in this book but I still loved it. ( )

Dare Wright was the author of "The Lonely Doll" books. Dare's life is fascinatingly glamorous, tragic and odd. Her dysfunctional upbringing created a grown virginal woman unable to form intimate, sexual relationships with men, preferring that they act more as her playmates. She and brother Blaine, who were separated by their divorced parents when they were very young, reunited as adults but their relationship was a confused combination of romantic love and childlike play. Dare's mother Edie, although indifferent to her children when they were young, went on to form a tight, oppressive and somewhat inappropriate relationship with her daughter. Dare's life was so tied to her mother that upon Edie's death, her own life fell apart. You can't help but feel sorry for a woman who was never permitted or encouraged to be independent and reach her emotional potential. ( )

There are two telling reviews on Amazon.com for The Lonely Doll:one entitled "Paging Dr. Freud" and the other entitled "Dolly Dearest." Both of these monikers are apt for this biography of The Lonely Doll's author, Dare Wright. Dare Wright, the product of a fabulously dysfunctional marriage of a failed actor/writer and a portrait artist was raised by her narcissistic mother who denied that her divorced husband was alive and that she also had a son whom she abandoned after she divorced her husband. Dare was also initially ignored and only used by her mother as an attractive accessory to her active social life. Later on, as mother Edie became older, she attached herself more tightly (and jealously) to her daughter - going on dates with her, taking all holidays with her and even sleeping in the same bed.

Dare, never grows up and has feelings of abandonment throughout her life. To cope she immerses herself in a life of fantasy - dressing up, having a desultory acting and modeling career and finally carving out a career for herself as a photographer. Ultimately, at her mother's apartment, she discovers an old doll she had as a child. She names this doll Edith and it assumes the role of her own child and, along with two Teddy bears who are symbols of the father who abandoned her and the brother who was taken from her, she develops a new "family" to replace the one she never had in real life.

This new "family" becomes the basis for a series of "Lonely Doll" children's books that were popular from the late 1950's through the early 1980's. Through these stories, Dare expressed her own fears of abandonment and her desire to have a safe haven in a stable family. Many people now find these stories extremely disturbing (as evidenced by the customer reviews on the Amazon web site), but the books, three of which were re-released in the 1990's, remain popular to this day.

Dare and her mother, Edie's, lives were similarly disturbing. Her life is truly a version of "Mommy Dearest" with Edie being pretty much the archetypal monster mother, and ultimately, she had a very sad end. Paging Dr. Freud, indeed. ( )