{"product_id":"maria-callas-an-intimate-biography-9780312310028","title":"Maria Callas: An Intimate Biography","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the\u003ci\u003e New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling biographer Anne Edwards comes the irresistible true story of the lives and loves of the great opera diva, Maria Callas.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMaria Callas continues to mesmerize us decades after her death, not only because she was indisputably the greatest opera diva of the 20th century, but also because both her life and death were shrouded in a Machiavellian web of scandal, mystery and deception. Now Anne Edwards, well known for her revealing and insightful biographies of some of the world's most noted women, tells the intimate story of Maria Callas--her loves, her life, and her music, revealing the true woman behind the headlines, gossip and speculation. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe second daughter of Greek immigrant parents, Maria found herself in the grasp of an overwhelmingly ambitious mother who took her away from her native New York and the father she loved, to a Greece on the eve of the Second World War. From there, we learn of the hardships, loves and triumphs Maria experienced in her professional and personal life. We are introduced to the men who marked Callas forever--Luchino Visconti, the brilliant homosexual director who she loved hopelessly, Giovanni Battista Meneghini, the husband thirty years her senior who used her for his own ambitions, as had her mother, and Aristotle Onassis, who put an end to their historic love affair by discarding her for the widowed Jacqueline Kennedy. Throughout her life, Callas waged a constant battle with her weight, a battle she eventually won, transforming herself from an ugly duckling into the slim and glamorous diva who transformed opera forever, whose recordings are legend, and whose life is the stuff of which tabloids are made. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAnne Edwards goes deeper than previous biographies of Maria Callas have dared. She draws upon intensive research to refute the story of Callas's \"mystery child\" by Onassis, and she reveals the true circumstances of the years preceding Callas's death, including the deception perpetrated by her close and trusted friend. As in her portraits of other brilliant, star-crossed women, Edwards brings Maria Callas--the \u003ci\u003eintimate \u003c\/i\u003eCallas--alive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnne Edwards\u003c\/b\u003e (1927 -2024) was the author of many biographies including the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestseller that became a classic in the field: \u003ci\u003eVivien Leigh: A Biography.\u003c\/i\u003e Other acclaimed titles include\u003ci\u003e Early Reagan: The Rise to Power\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eMatriarch: Queen Mary and the House of Windsor;\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eKatharine Hepburn: A Biography\u003c\/i\u003e. Edwards was a former president of the Authors Guild and a sought-after speaker. She and her late husband, musical theater historian Stephen Citron, lived in Beverly Hills, California.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"St. Martin's Griffin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50668951404818,"sku":"9780312310028","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_ae3e0f29-4640-4eb4-adbe-dedf26433c86.jpg?v=1733753294","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/maria-callas-an-intimate-biography-9780312310028","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}