A Gucci Murder Mystery; the Birth of Bond; Ava Gardner’s Lost Memoirs

A Special Delivery From the Vanity Fair Archive View in your browser | Update your preferences     A daily digest of things to discuss over drinks October 09, 2021 Dive into these five long reads this weekend, specially selected from the V.F. Archive.   A Gucci Knockoff Maurizio Gucci, whose family name is still a synonym for style and chic, forfeited his pride, his reputation, and his global empire of bags and shoes before he lost his life to a mysterious, elegantly dressed assassin. From Maurizio's Bulgari-draped ex-wife, and from other family members, Judy Bachrach learned of the intense loathing and vicious rivalries that brought down the Gucci dynasty. R E A D  M O R E »     Witness and Respair Acclaimed novelist Jesmyn Ward lost her beloved husband—the father of her children—as COVID-19 swept across the country. In 2020, she wrote through their story, and her grief. R E A D  M O R E »     Salinger in Love In the spring of 1972, an 18-year-old Yale freshman with dreams of literary glory wrote a precocious, provocative cover story for The New York Times Magazine. Among the deluge of responses—from readers, editors, Hollywood directors—was a letter signed by that most famously reclusive star of American fiction, J.D. Salinger, which sparked first a correspondence, then a conversation, and then an intense nine-month affair. In an excerpt from her controversial 1998 memoir, Joyce Maynard recalled the blossoming of her romance with the 53-year-old Salinger and its cruel, chilling end. R E A D  M O R E »     Three Men and a Goddess Once Hollywood's most irresistible woman—wed to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra—by 1988 Ava Gardner was nearly broke, ravaged by illness, and intent on selling her memoirs. But the man she chose as her ghostwriter, Peter Evans, had his own problems, not least a legal war with Sinatra. In an exclusive from the book that wasn't published in either of their lifetimes, Gardner spilled the seduction-to-split secrets of her three marriages. R E A D  M O R E »     The Birth of Bond Fifty-plus years ago, at the dawn of the commercial-jet age, James Bond strode into movie history, to show audiences how stylish and thrilling life could be. But creating the cinematic Bond was fraught with peril, as best-selling author Ian Fleming discovered when he first tried to take his hero to the screen. In 2012, David Kamp recalled the unlikely team—two small-time producers, a journeyman director, and a "rough diamond" of a star—behind 007's film debut, Dr. No, the beginning of a $5 billion franchise. R E A D  M O R E » Get on the list Subscribe to our Hollywood newsletter for your essential industry and awards-season news, every day. Sign Up Now     This e-mail was sent to you by VANITY FAIR. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, vanityfair@newsletter.vf.com, to your address book. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.