Interview: June 19, 2025
GIANT LOVE explores the great American novelist and playwright Edna Ferber, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, whose work was made into many Academy Award-winning movies; the writing of her controversial, internationally bestselling novel about Texas; and the making of George Stevens’ Academy Award-winning epic film of the same name, Giant.
In this interview conducted by Michael Barson, Senior Publicity Executive at Melville House, Julie Gilbert, who is Ferber’s great-niece, explains why researching and writing this book was so personal for her; speculates on why her great-aunt isn’t as widely read today as she should be; and talks about two novels written by Ferber that she believes should be adapted as a film or miniseries.
Question: I think it’s fair to say that only you could have written this particular book, having both unique resources and a unique perspective. Were you aware of that special state throughout your writing process?
Julie Gilbert: I have always been rather hyper-aware of my legacy. Because I loved and respected my great-aunt so much, I have been nearly obsessed with maintaining/boosting her massive contributions. GIANT LOVE was an especially personal book to research and write because I was there --- albeit a small girl --- during her process of writing the novel GIANT and then her vast participation in the making of the movie. My mission was to find deep truths in my research that could shed light on new aspects of the classic.
Q: Edna Ferber was a legitimate superstar during the first half of the 20th century thanks to her multiple bestselling novels, her plays, and the many film adaptations of her books. And yet, as you point out toward the end of your book, she is not read that widely today. Can you identify the primary reasons for this puzzling state of affairs?
JG: I wish I knew! Once people start to read her work and then see the films, they feel they've found gold and don't understand why it has been hiding in plain sight. I could say that thematic, penetrating storytelling has become passe, or that her life didn't lend itself to romantic drama, or that the public generally has lost interest in articulate, adventurous, brave women writers with thoughtful, incisive, moral stories to tell. I thought she and her life were so swashbuckling that reviving her would be a natural. So I continue to be stumped.
Q: One of the most amazing revelations in GIANT LOVE is the bonding that Edna experienced with the mercurial 24-year-old James Dean. Were you just as surprised to learn of this unexpected relationship while doing your research?
JG: Not really. My parents used to mention the glow in her eyes during the film period of Giant. It was as if she had an infusion of some kind. We all noticed it. I simply pointed it out and opened it up in the book.
Q: Is there a film that you wish could be afforded the kind of special historical treatment that you have provided in your book, even if you are not going to be its author? I know I can think of a few.
JG: What a great question! I will answer with some of my favorite films that have such a refrain that I long for their backstories: A Passage to India, The Man Who Would Be King, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Lord of the Flies, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Some Like It Hot, Jezebel, Sayonara, To Kill a Mockingbird, E.T., and on and on.
Q: That special partnership that Edna entered into before the film began its production ended up making her a multi-millionaire after its release --- and her alone among the partners! I still can’t quite wrap my head around how that all happened between her and Warner Bros.
JG: It is a considerably longer story than was in the book. It's probably an article --- at least --- in itself. Suffice it to say that the journey from book to movie deal was quite serpentine. Ferber insisted on a lot in making the deal, and she was monetarily simultaneously conservative and bordering on naive at times --- which could appear as stubborn. So the deal had to be structured very carefully. It was quite a painstaking process.
Q: I think it’s safe to say that GIANT will never be remade as a film, given its enduring status. But do you feel that one of Edna’s other novels might profit from a new screen or miniseries adaptation right now, nearly a century later? If it can happen to Edith Wharton, then why not Edna?
JG: Yes. There are two that I feel would translate well: SARATOGA TRUNK (which already has a treatment that no one has been interested in) and ICE PALACE. Both are thematically relevant today.
SARATOGA TRUNK'S themes in the 1941 novel and its subsequent 1945 movie were way ahead of the time. The two main characters, Clio and Clint, were romantically linked but predominantly mercenary. Both titans in their own way, they had to eventually be together because no one else could have handled their powerful and prickly natures. Also, they were a mixed-race couple, as Clio was French Creole and Clint was Texan.
ICE PALACE, the 1958 novel, was better than the 1960 movie by a long shot. It was perhaps Ferber's most environmentally conscious and prescient work, leading the way for Senator Ernest Gruening and Alaska's statehood. The movie by contrast seemed dull and flabby. It had two strong male stars, Richard Burton and Robert Ryan, who were both not shown at their best. At one point, I had approached Robert Redford for a remake but was told he was doing something environmentally similar.
Thank you for mentioning Edith Wharton. All the EF Estate needs is Martin Scorsese!
