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Patricia Bosworth

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Anything Your Little Heart Desires: An American Family Story Kindle Edition

by Patricia Bosworth (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 62 ratings

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A memoir by the daughter of famous attorney Bartley C. Crum: “A gripping account not only of Crum but of McCarthyism and its devastating effects” (SFGate).
The FBI kept a secret dossier on him. He was a confidante to stars; adviser to politicians; and lawyer to the likes of William Randolph Hearst, Rita Hayworth, and the blacklisted Hollywood Ten, whom he defended during the House Un-American Activities Committee trials of 1947. Bartley C. Crum was also Patricia Bosworth’s father—a frequently absent, unrelentingly principled, and stubbornly self-destructive one. Anything Your Little Heart Desires is Bosworth’s memoir of life with him, and of the momentous events that shaped his lifetime, from the New Deal to the Cold War and the anti-Communist fervor that jolted American life. Using interviews, journals, letters, and her father’s own files, Bosworth delivers a profoundly personal portrait of the father she never fully knew, and the political forces that shaped a nation.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The author profiles her relatives with the same sensitivity she brought to biographies of Montgomery Clift and Diane Arbus. She pays tribute to the liberal idealism that led her father, Bartley C. Crum, to defend unpopular leftists at home and Jewish refugees desperate to get into Palestine abroad, even as she depicts his lengthy absences and financial carelessness wreaking havoc on his wife and children. Patricia Bosworth's portraits of her unhappy, adulterous mother and withdrawn, suicidal brother are equally nuanced. The subtitle says it all: "An American Family Story."

From Library Journal

Writers of familial reminiscences often reveal a taste for treacly superlatives and insincere endearments. No such charge can be leveled here against Bosworth (e.g., Diane Arbus, LJ 6/1/84), the daughter of Bartley C. Crum. Crum was perhaps best known as one of the six lawyers who defended the Hollywood Ten when the House Un-American Activities Committee was pursuing its investigations of the "Communist peril" at the start of the Cold War in 1947. In presenting the story of Crum's remarkable career as lawyer to such notables as Rita Hayworth, adviser to President Truman, publisher of a liberal tabloid, and champion of the First Amendment, Bosworth maintains an admirable combination of sympathetic understanding and never-cold detachment. One feels that she has accomplished what she evidently set out to do: come to terms with her brother's and her father's suicides and reconcile herself to her father's having named names to prove his own loyalty. An engrossing study of personalities and motivations; strongly recommended.?A.J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Bartley C. Crum is not as familiar as Bosworth's previous subjects: Montgomery Clift (1978), and photographer Diane Arbus (1984); newer editions of these best-selling biographies are still in print. But Bart Crum, a flashy, crusading attorney who campaigned for Wendell Willkie and represented everyone from William Randolph Hearst and Rita Hayward to the Hollywood Ten, was Bosworth's father. In reconstructing his life and tragic suicide at age 59, Bosworth is also coming to terms with her own past and creating an unforgettable portrait of the early stages of U.S. celebrity subculture, from the Depression to the McCarthy era. In San Francisco, New York, Hollywood, and Washington, Bart Crum and his reporter-novelist wife, Gertrude "Cutsie" Bosworth, swam with the big fish. The victories Crum scored, and the conflict and decline that led him to barbiturate addiction and suicide, make this intimate family memoir a compelling, involving story of Crum's times as well as his life. Mary Carroll

From Kirkus Reviews

Amid the current flood of dysfunctional-family memoirs, this one by biographer Bosworth (Diane Arbus, 1984, etc.) stands out for its lack of self-pity and its magnetic central figure, her father, Bartley Crum--a habitu in the realms of celebrity and power who was finally destroyed by personal weakness and devotion to principle. With their talent, elegance, and glamour, Bart and wife, Anna Gertrude Bosworth (known as ``Cutsie''), a former San Francisco reporter and novelist, must have resembled Dick and Nicole Diver to their friends. Approaching life with ``supreme self-confidence and an attitude of entitlement,'' Bart used his connections as a prominent San Francisco lawyer to gain entre to Hollywood and Washington. Patricia and her brother, Bart Jr., grew up near the glow of celebrity, with visitors such as Montgomery Clift, Rita Hayworth (whom Bart represented in her divorce from Aly Kahn), and Wendell Willkie (whom Bart advised in the 1940 presidential campaign). Yet their father continually passed in and out on either business trips or one of his perpetual political crusades; a dismayed Cutsie retreated into sullenness and affairs. Then, when Bart denounced the House Un-American Activities Committee as an attorney for two members of the blacklisted ``Hollywood Ten,'' he was trailed by the FBI. Family troubles followed: insolvency, Bart's worsening addiction to alcohol and pills, Patricia's marital difficulties, Bart Jr.'s troubled youth and suicide, and, in 1959, after a disastrous appearance before the Senate Rackets Committee investigating Jimmy Hoffa, Bart Sr.'s own appointment in Samarra. In the aftermath, using her mother's diaries, interviews with colleagues, and her father's FBI dossier, Bosworth had to square her ``fantasy image of Daddy as Superman'' with the reality of a decent man forced to inform secretly to the FBI. An unflinchingly honest depiction of a family undone by the whirlwind revolving around an ebullient, compassionate man who was also a weak husband and father. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

“Extraordinary . . . as beautifully written as any memoir I have ever read.” —The New York Observer“A memorable and moving book about a man—indeed, a family—of Fitzgeraldian proportions. . . . A distinguished and gripping American saga.” —Chicago Tribune“A fully realized memoir.” —The New York Times

About the Author

Patricia Bosworth (b. 1933) is a bestselling journalist and biographer. She is a contributing editor for Vanity Fair and a contributor to the New York Times and the Nation. She was also a Broadway actor for nearly a decade, and now runs the Playwrights/Directors Unit at the Actors Studio. Bosworth has taught nonfiction writing at Columbia University as senior fellow at the National Arts Journalism Program, and has lectured at Barnard, Yale University, and the New School. Her books include Montgomery Clift (1978), Diane Arbus (1984), Marlon Brando (2000), and Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman (2011).

From AudioFile

Personal history and public biography are the focus of this semi-autobiographical work. Here Patricia Bosworth reveals the public and private lives of her father, Barltey Cavanaugh Crum, California lawyer and politico of the 1930's and '40's who was a patron of Wilke, and a communist ultimately blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee; and her unusual, extremely social mother, Cutsy. Delfino takes the listener through Bosworth's life in a nonstop, pell-mell race of words and description while barely coming up for a breath of air. One minute of inattention and the gist of the vignette is lost. Describing family interactions, tensions and more, Delfino delivers insights using minimal inflection to differentiate characters and personalities, returning again and again to the fast-paced narrative of Bosworth's tale. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0083JBXZG
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (June 5, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 5, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2387 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 414 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,206,176 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #125 in Historical Russian Biographies
- #167 in Historical Middle Eastern Biographies
- #564 in Western U.S. Biographies

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4.1 62 ratings

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Patricia Bosworth is an American journalist and biographer. A former faculty member of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, she has also been an editor, actress, and model.

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Lyric

Illuminating portrait of family roiled by dysfunction

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2023

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Bosworth is a beautiful writer -- intelligent, precise, detailed and candid. She not only tells the reader that she was searching for who her father was but also she takes us on the search with her as she combs her own keen observations, her mother's diaries, her father's papers, news articles, his FBI file and discussions with friends, colleagues and relatives. I'm not certain that Bosworth found all of what she sought but I do think she found enough. She doesn't directly criticize her parents but she does reveal enough about them so that the dysfunction in the family is highly visible. Her mother was dissatisfied with everything -- her own attempts at being a writer, her marriage, and even her homes which although elegant and stylish reflected a woman in need of constant change attempting to fill the gaping hole of need that she had. Bosworth makes it clear that the family was constantly dealing with unpaid bills of every sort yet the mother never attempted to curtail the lifestyle she felt the family should have which included servants, private schools, jewelry, expensive clothing etc. Meanwhile the father was incapable of just tending his law practice and making the kind of money that would have supported that life which he indulged in too. He was involved in all kind of laudable causes and did more than his fair share of pro bono work but in the process neglected his duties as both the financial support of the family as well as the father he should have been. Did they love their children -- yes, but in a fashion that was consistent with inattentive parenting. It baffled me as to the reason these two people had children since the kids appeared to be just - there - but not really a focus of interest for the parents. The kids spent a lot of time with their nanny and a lot of time being shipped to private schools and a lot of time trying to figure out what was happening in their lives as they'd periodically be uprooted and moved to a different house, state, etc. Bosworth's brother commits suicide and one can't but think that more attentive parents would have realized that the boy was struggling with something -- possibly a realization that he was homosexual but that was never discussed as the parents were very skilled at avoiding what they didn't want to know or consider. The fact that Bosworth herself emerged to become a skilled writer of biographies and this work about her family is a testament to the clear eye she'd developed early on that allowed her to see what many others missed when looking at her family on the surface.
A memorable book.

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Kindle Customer

A sad and wonderful book

Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2017

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What an amazing life the author's family had. Her father, Bart Crum, was an extremely talented lawyer, fixer, mover and shaker not only in the Hollywood community but also in high levels of diplomatic government. Her mother was beautiful, had exquisite taste in furnishings, lifestyle and entertaining the good and the great. However, she was deeply dissatisfied with her husband's constant business away from home and sought comfort outside the marriage. This left two rather parentless children to make do as best they could with the result that the author's brother committed suicide. Her father never recovered from this, nor did the marriage, and he subsequently ended his life with a seconal overdose after numerous tries earlier. A bit too much information for me about the Communist witch hunts during which Bart defended many of the accused and was mostly blacklisted himself as a result. Anyway, a great insight into a very important time in American history post WWII. Very rich in detail about an impressive family and the inner and outer workings of a marriage.

3 people found this helpful

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Jonster

The Beauty in the Details

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2017

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Apart from being a fascinating look into American politics via Patricia Boswell's beloved father, Bartley Crum, a lawyer and political insider active from Roosevelt to the Kennedys, this book illuminates the beautiful and tragic history of a fascinating family. A sensitive, compassionate man who undertook the plight of the underdog in both his high profile and pro bono cases, Mr. Crum was largely unknown, and Ms. Boswell does a magnificent job bringing him to life. But the book is not just about her father.

I am not sure how I missed this one as I try to read everything Patricia Boswell writes. A well-known author of celebrity biographies -- I consider her book on Montgomery Clift to be the gold standard -- I could not take my eyes off the page for one minute when I realized she had written a family memoir of sorts with "Anything Your Little Heart Desires."

Ms. Bosworth has always had an elegant, incisive style and she applies her keen eye here as she describes in loving detail the man who called her "My Masterpiece." I had no idea of the author's other career as an actress and now I will have to rent "The Nun's Story" which I've never seen. I also had no idea of the tragedy of losing the two men in her family to suicide. At points in her story, Ms. Bosworth flails herself for her reaction to these tragedies, saying it is something she will regret to the end of her life. But I believe things work out exactly the way they are supposed to and that her loved ones would not want her to feel any sense of guilt at all.

The cast of characters in this book is impressive and absolutely fascinating to read about, in particular Ms. Bosworth's father and "The Drifter." Her description of this odd man and his involvement in the family was one of my favorite parts. The way he transforms their garden while transforming her mother as well vividly displays Ms. Bosworth's talent for storytelling. Using her mother's notes of the time, the author discovers a whole new side to her mother, surprised at her affection for this usurper of her absent father's chair at the head of the table. The sudden conflagration in their garden when he leaves after realizing her mother has cut him out, put the best of Ms. Bosworth's abilities on display -- combining a reporter's eye with an unerring ability to take events and give them an almost fable-like quality. This makes it easier to see the sometimes humorous irony that goes along with it all.

Congrats to Ms. Bosworth. She paints her subjects so well. The reader feels he really knows them. l, especially liked her mother, a stylish, articulate woman. Nothing is forgotten in this book. Neither the chaos of the big things nor the beauty in the details.

Five Stars. Great Read!

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sillyts

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2017

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isn't as exciting as it is billed in my opinion.

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annonymous

perceptiveness and in both volumes the sensitivity of a young girl and an intelligent woman. Both books are a delight and worth

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2017

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The prelude to Patricia Bosworth's ALL THE MEN IN MY LIFE, ANYTHING YOUR LITTLE HEART DESIRES covers the early years of her family's life with the important story of her father who was one of the attorney's for the Hollywood Ten, the Hollywood actors and directors who refused to testify before the HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE in the late forties and fifties. Bosworth writes with candor, insight, perceptiveness and in both volumes the sensitivity of a young girl and an intelligent woman. Both books are a delight and worth reading for one who's interested in the history of our times told from a unique and inside view.

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Stephen

Daddy, I Scarcely Knew You

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 25, 2012

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Excellent book - moving and well written. Captures very well both the political uncertainty of Cold War America and the personal and emotional uncertainty of a caring, talented but tacitly troubled family.

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