Valley of the Dolls the Mount Everest of her dreams, only to find herself back in the valley of the dolls. Susann had apparently been thinking about the novel for some time. Some years earlier, she had begun "Underneath the Pancake", a show business novel, with her actress friend Beatrice Cole (c. 1910–1999). Later, she considered writing a novel about drug usage in show business to be called "The Pink Dolls". "Valley of the Dolls" is considered to be a "roman à clef", with its characters based on famous figures such as Judy Garland, Carole Landis, Dean Martin, and Ethel Merman. In 1973, after
Susann Cokal Susann Cokal Susann Cokal is an American author and academic. She is best known for having written the novels "The Kingdom of Little Wounds", "Mirabilis", and "Breath and Bones", along with short stories, literary and pop-culture criticism, and book reviews. "The Kingdom of Little Wounds" won a Printz silver medal from the American Library Association in 2014. Cokal contributed short stories to anthologies and journals including "Prairie Schooner", "Hayden's Ferry Review", "Bellevue Literary Review", "The Cincinnati Review", and Ohio State University's "The Journal". She also contributed essays about contemporary writers to "Critique", "Scandinavian Studies", "Texas Studies in Literature and Language",