Fonda: My Life

This book is pure pleasure from beginning to end. It feels like returning home to a wonderful, favourite place after a long time away, to find the hearth fires lighted and the lovely, familiar house redolent with the aroma of the evening meal. The musical sound of loved one's voices can be heard in the next room as the fire crackles...This is a warm, intimate visit with Henry Fonda, beginning long before he was famous. It is written by Howard Teichmann, as the stories were shared with him by Henry Fonda. Henry Fonda had always refused requests in past to authourise a biography, but he came to like and trust Mr. Teichmann and they created a beautiful tableau together. Their collaboration took place during the last two years of Henry Fonda's life. This time period was before, during and following the filming of "On Golden Pond." It covers the early years in New York City, where he shared quarters with Jimmy Stewart and many more people of the same era. It follows him through his career and his personal life and it is an incredibly authentic treatise. It pulls no punches and if you like Henry Fonda before reading his life story, you will never forget him after you read this book! This is the quintessential biography for Henry Fonda, although, technically it is an autobiography. Whatever name you give it, it is one of my favourite books. There is not another book regarding him that comes close. This is a Winner!!

Since Henry Fonda resisted almost all his life to share his private life with the public, this book of Howard Teichman is probably the one and only book, that helps you getting to know Henry Fonda. You know him from screen and stage, but who is the man behind the actor ? This book tells you not only how he started acting on stage and in movies. It also shows his private life , family life, his personality and how he saw the world. It is simply not to understand, why this book is out of print.