Film Scholar and author Dan Callahan gives readers a lifelong look at the overshadowed reputation of the actress Barbara Stanwyck. Beginning with a rocky upbringing in between foster homes, this biography spans Stanwyck’s rise from chorus girl to one of Hollywood’s most talented and highly paid leading women.

After finally breaking into Broadway, she starred in a stream of high-end films from the 1930s-1950s working with such directors as Cecil B. DeMille, Frank Capra and Fritz Lang. After making more than eighty Hollywood films, the actress reprised her career in television with her role in the 1960s series “The Big Valley.”

Stanwyck was a four-time Academy Award nominee, a winner of 3 Emmys and a Golden Globe. She was also honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Academy.

In “Barbara Stanwyck: The Miracle Woman,” author Dan Callahan brings the reader to the top of the profession in the golden age of Hollywood while offering a personal narrative of the sometimes under-appreciated actress.

What are some of your favorite roles Stanwyck had throughout her career? How did her trials in her early life affect her creative profession?

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Dan Callahan, author of “Barbara Stanwyck: the Miracle Woman” (University Press of Mississippi), independent film scholar who has been published in Film International, Time Out New York and others