Public Smiles Private Tears Author:Helen Van Slyke with James Elward Beverly Thyson's extraordinary rise in the ruthless world of women's fashion astonishes everyone -- including herself. But her personal life [including a failed marriage and an exciting but unfulfilling affair] makes Bev feel she is lacking as a woman. Using all her strength and intuition to reach the very pinnacle of success, she is constantly ... more »searching for love.
This is Helen Van Slyke's tenth and final novel, the first half of which she had completed before her untimely death on July 3, 1979. Although she had begun writing only nine years earlier at the age of fifty, she acheived international acclaim as the author of such bestsellers as No Love Lost, A Necessary Woman, The Mixed Blessing, and The Heart Listens. James Elward, novelist [Storm's End; Tomorrow Is Mine]and playwright[Best Friends; Hallelujah!], had always admired Helen Van Slyke, both as a writer and as a person. When he read the unfinished manuscript of Public Smiles, Private Tears, he truly felt it was Helen's greatest achievement, and immediately began the enormous task of finishing the book.« less