Dorothy Hale

Dorothy Hale (January 11, 1905 – October 21, 1938) was an American socialite and aspiring actress who died by jumping off a building in New York City. Her husband's death, followed by several unsuccessful relationships, had left her financially dependent on her wealthy friends. The artist Frida Kahlo created a famous painting commissioned by Clare Boothe Luce, titled The Suicide of Dorothy Hale. Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale, written by former NBC News producer Pamela Hamilton, was published on March 31, 2021, to critical acclaim. Drawing on original research, the fictionalized biography portrays Hale as a smart, talented, determined woman, upending the widely held belief that Hale was hapless. At the heart of the novel is Hale's friendship with Clare Boothe Luce and the life they led together in café society. Hamilton spent two decades conducting research on Hale, her life, and her friends.Lady Be Good received a Kirkus Reviews starred review and was selected as a Kirkus Best Indie Book of the Year as well as a Booklife by Publishers Weekly Editors Pick. It has won the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Benjamin Franklin Award, the National Indie Excellence Award, the Royal Dragonfly Book Award in the Fiction and Historical Fiction categories, the Mark Twain Book Award for Humor and Satire, and others. Reviewers of the book included famed artist Ashley Longshore, who said "Lady Be Good is an absolute candy dish of luxury, opulence, and grandeur. A lens into the upper echelon of the Roaring 20s." Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author Bill Dedman said: "Meticulously researched and well told, Lady be Good is a magnificent debut novel that takes readers on an enthralling and heartbreaking journey. Hamilton beautifully captures the themes of love and betrayal, class and culture, and the price of fame."