Valley of the Dolls Valley of the Dolls Valley of the Dolls is the first novel by American writer Jacqueline Susann. Published in 1966, the book was the biggest selling novel of its year. To date, it has sold more than 31 million copies, making it one of the best-selling works in publishing history. The novel tells the story of three young women who become fast friends in the turbulent post-war worlds of Broadway and Hollywood: Anne Welles, a reserved New England beauty who sees New York as the romantic city of her dreams; Neely O'Hara, an ebullient vaudevillian with a talent she doesn't
Dolores (Susann novel) to devote her time to research as she was seriously ill with cancer. The "Journal" had offered Susann $20,000 for 20,000 words, but the manuscript she turned in was nearly 38,000 words. It was cut by "Journal" editors, but the excisions were restored when the story was published in book form. Certain details were changed in the book (for example, in the original story, Dolores's husband, Jimmy Ryan, is felled by a heart attack, not by an assassin's bullet). Rumors that film critic (and friend of Susann) Rex Reed rewrote the work are unsubstantiated. The book is dedicated to the