Such Mad Fun

What determines who a woman will become? Jane Hall was an orphan at fifteen and a "literary prodigy" according to the press. How did this spirited young girl from an Arizona mining town become a Depression-era debutante, a successful author of magazine fiction, and a screenwriter at Hollywood's most glamorous studio? At Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Jane wrote the story and the script for the "best social comedy of 1939," These Glamour Girls, and established a lively camaraderie with F. Scott Fitzgerald, who worked in the office next door to hers. But, Jane's ambition conflicted with the expectations of her family, her friends, and the era, in which she lived. Drawing on her mother's diaries and scores of letters, historian Robin Cutler takes us on an unforgettable journey through 1930s Manhattan and Hollywood as Jane wrestles with who she was meant to be. Such Mad Fun is a coming-of-age story, set in a decade that has surprising parallels with American life today.