Editorial Content for Giant Love: Edna Ferber, Her Best-Selling Novel of Texas, and the Making of a Classic American Film
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
I do not know how familiar many readers are with Edna Ferber. I recognized her name because of the movie Giant, which is based on Ferber’s novel of the same name. It remains a classic due to its incredible cast, including Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Dennis Hopper and James Dean, who died in a car accident shortly before the film was completed.
GIANT LOVE, written by Ferber’s great-niece, Julie Gilbert, can be best described as a dual biography. The first half is devoted to Ferber, a woman of immense talent who rose from being a journalist to receiving a Pulitzer Prize for her novel, SO BIG, and wrote SHOW BOAT, a book that later became an iconic Broadway musical. Ferber was far ahead of her time. Her works always featured strong female characters, and she was not afraid to confront important cultural issues. Informative and insightful, this biographical material added much to my reading experience.
"In addition to being a brilliant book about how movies are made, [GIANT LOVE] is an outstanding portrait of Edna Ferber, a true artist and pioneering spirit."
It is in this portion of GIANT LOVE that we learn how Ferber chose to write a novel set in Texas and the difficulties that came with this decision: “GIANT, in the guise of Texas, haunted me for a decade or more. I shrank from it, I shuddered to contemplate the grim task of wrestling with this vast subject. Finally, I wrote it to be rid of it.” Ferber would do a great deal of research for the book, with much of it exposing her to the racial disparities of the state for both Mexican and Black Americans. When GIANT was published, Texas was still mythical to many. Just as LONESOME DOVE later would reveal a different side of the Texas frontier myth, Ferber’s novel would portray Texas in the post-World War II era, a state of vast oil wealth confronting a changing national political landscape.
GIANT sold well, ranking in the top 10 of books that released in 1952. Texans were not as pleased as others due in large part to the negative portrayal of Texas oil barons. Ferber handled the criticism precisely as an artist should. She accepted the hostility of some Texas newspaper reviews and simply observed that many critiques spoke of her admiration and fascination for the state. Regardless of how Texans felt, the popularity of the novel meant that it soon would receive the film treatment.
The sections of GIANT LOVE that cover the book-to-movie transformation are rich in detail. Gilbert had access to a great deal of Ferber’s written communications between the studio and with director George Stevens. For part of the filming, Ferber was in Alaska where she was researching what she hoped would be her next novel, while the movie was shooting on location in Marfa, Texas. Marfa’s community still maintains a connection with Giant, including the Hotel Paisano, where guests can find accommodations in suites bearing the names of James Dean, Rock Hudson and Dennis Hopper. Even though she never stayed at the hotel, Elizabeth Taylor also has a room named after her.
In Hollywood, where much of Giant was made, Ferber had substantial input. She was a hands-on contributor to elements of the plot and screenplay, and even before filming, she had thoughts on the cast. It is very eye-opening to read her discussion of how the movie came to be, including how various actors were considered for roles and sometimes were not cast simply because they were unavailable. Hollywood in the 1950s was a far different enterprise than it is today.
GIANT LOVE is a thoroughly researched and wonderfully told story of a film that some have called “the national movie of Texas.” In addition to being a brilliant book about how movies are made, it is an outstanding portrait of Edna Ferber, a true artist and pioneering spirit.
Teaser
The stupendous publication of Edna Ferber's GIANT in 1952 set off a storm of protest over the novel's portrayal of Texas manners, money and mores, with oil-rich Texans threatening to shoot, lynch or ban Ferber from ever entering the state again. In GIANT LOVE, Julie Gilbert writes of the internationally bestselling Ferber, one of the most widely read writers in the first half of the 20th century --- her evolution from mid-west maverick girl-reporter to Pulitzer Prize-winning, beloved American novelist, from her want-to-be actress days to becoming Broadway's acclaimed prize-winning playwright whose collaborators were, along with Ferber herself, the most successful playwrights of their time. Here is the making of an American classic novel and the film that followed in its wake.
Promo
The stupendous publication of Edna Ferber's GIANT in 1952 set off a storm of protest over the novel's portrayal of Texas manners, money and mores, with oil-rich Texans threatening to shoot, lynch or ban Ferber from ever entering the state again. In GIANT LOVE, Julie Gilbert writes of the internationally bestselling Ferber, one of the most widely read writers in the first half of the 20th century --- her evolution from mid-west maverick girl-reporter to Pulitzer Prize-winning, beloved American novelist, from her want-to-be actress days to becoming Broadway's acclaimed prize-winning playwright whose collaborators were, along with Ferber herself, the most successful playwrights of their time. Here is the making of an American classic novel and the film that followed in its wake.
About the Book
A book that 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, international bestselling novel about Texas, and the making of George Stevens’ Academy Award-winning epic film of the same name, Giant.
The stupendous publication of Edna Ferber's GIANT in 1952 set off a storm of protest over the novel's portrayal of Texas manners, money and mores with oil-rich Texans threatening to shoot, lynch or ban Ferber from ever entering the state again.
In GIANT LOVE, Julie Gilbert writes of the internationally bestselling Ferber, one of the most widely read writers in the first half of the 20th century --- her evolution from mid-west maverick girl-reporter to Pulitzer Prize winning, beloved American novelist, from her want-to-be actress days to becoming Broadway's acclaimed prize-winning playwright whose collaborators (George S. Kauffman and Moss Hart, among them) were, along with Ferber, herself, the most successful playwrights of their time.
Here is the making of an American classic novel and the film that followed in its wake. We see how George Stevens, Academy-Award winning director, wooed the prickly, stubborn Ferber, ultimately getting her to agree to everything including writing, for the first time ever, a draft of a screenplay, to her okaying James Dean for the part of the ranch hand, Jett Rink, something she was dead set against.
Here is the casting of Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean and their backstory triangle of sex and seduction --- each becoming a huge star because of the film; the frustrated Stevens trying to direct the instinctive but undisciplined Dean and the months-long landmark filming in the sleepy town of Marfa, Texas, suddenly invaded by a battalion of a film crew and some of the biggest stars in the rising celebrity culture.
Audiobook available, read by Maggi-Meg Reed
