Shadowland: Search for Frances Farmer is a 1978 biographical novel

Biographical novel

The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional and usually entertaining account of a person's life. This kind of novel concentrates on the experiences a person had during his lifetime, the people he met and the incidents which occurred are detailed and sometimes...

 by William Arnold

William Arnold

William Arnold was one of the founding settlers of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and with his sons was among the wealthiest people in the colony. He was raised and educated in England where he was the warden of St. Mary's, the parish church of Ilchester in southeastern...

, ostensibly about the life of actress Frances Farmer

Frances Farmer

Frances Elena Farmer was an American actress of stage and screen. She is perhaps better known for sensationalized and fictional accounts of her life, and especially her involuntary commitment to a mental hospital...

. The book is a fictionalized account which was further distorted when adapted as the film Frances

Frances

Frances is a 1982 American drama film starring Jessica Lange, Kim Stanley, and Sam Shepard. When it was released this film was advertised as a purportedly true account of actress Frances Farmer's life but the script was largely fictional and sensationalized...

 in 1982. Arnold sued for copyright infringement, claiming the film's screenplay writers appropriated several of his "fictionalized" elements, but eventually lost.

External links

• "Shedding Light on Shadowland" - In-depth essay detailing the many fictionalized elements in the film Frances
  Frances
  Frances is a 1982 American drama film starring Jessica Lange, Kim Stanley, and Sam Shepard. When it was released this film was advertised as a purportedly true account of actress Frances Farmer's life but the script was largely fictional and sensationalized...
  
  and its source material.