"Valley of the Dolls" by Jacqueline Susann


Valley of the Dolls is a novel by American writer Jacqueline Susann, published in 1966. The "dolls" within the title is a euphemism for pills, and was created by Susann. The term represents the women's reliance on stimulants, depressants, and sleeping pills, and how substance abuse is reminiscent of children clinging to toy dolls for comfort.

An overnight success when it was first published, Valley of the Dolls became the bestselling work of fiction of 1966. Since then it has sold more than 30 million copies, making it one of the bestselling books of all time. As the first roman à clef by a female author to achieve this level of sales in America, it led the way for other authors such as Jackie Collins to depict the private lives of the real-life rich and famous under a veneer of fiction. The 1997 reissue by Grove Press calls the book "The All-Time Pop-Culture Classic" on its back cover.

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