Everything and Nothing

Dorothy Dandridge wrote this autobiography in her own voice. She finished it shortly after her death in 1965, at the age of 42, from a drug overdose. It follows a life that began in modest circumstances in Depression-era Cleveland, Ohio, moved into the spotlight of Hollywood, and then fell sharply, all as she experienced it.

Her childhood was shaped by family hardship and bitter disappointments, and she recalls those early years alongside her climb to fame. She became the first African American actress nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, for her role in Carmen Jones, and she is often remembered as Hollywood's first Black sex symbol. She also starred as Bess in the film Porgy and Bess.

The memoir then turns to the other side of her success: her slide into alcoholism and her money troubles. The result is an intimate, first-person account of one of Hollywood's most distinctive stars.