Drawing on interviews, letters, diaries, and other documents still in private hands, The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Classics provides a uniquely intimate behind-the-scenes chronicle of the lives, loves, work, and relationship between these complex men.

Sydney Ladensohn Stern’s dual biography of screenwriter/director brothers Herman and Joseph L. Mankieiwcz, was called “beautifully researched and deftly structured” by the Wall Street Journal and “an UNUSUALLY well written biography” by Terry Teachout.  It was excerpted in Commentary and prompted Turner Classic Movies (TCM) to feature Sydney as a guest host for a three-day Mankiewicz Family Weekend.  She also discussed it in numerous radio and podcast interviews including the 92^nd Street Y, Leonard Lopate at Large and Illeana Douglas’s The Film Scene.  It won the Southwest Popular and American Culture Association’s 2020 Peter C. Rollins Book Award; was long listed for the 2020 Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Book Awards; and was named a finalist for the 2019 Richard Wall Memorial Award by the Theatre Library Association.

Following the release of David Fincher’s 2020 feature film Mank, Sydney interviewed Fincher and wrote about wrote about the experience of seeing her subjects on screen.

The Brothers Mankiewicz also had the dubious distinction of attracting international coverage when Harvey Weinstein read it during jury selection for his trial.

As of August 3, we have updated our face-mask policy at The Mount. We strongly encourage vaccinated visitors to wear masks when attending outdoor events. Unvaccinated visitors must wear masks at all times. When indoors, masks are required regardless of vaccination status.

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