Ellen Burstyn's autobiography Lessons in Becoming Myself is a touching story about her abusive childhood and her desire to escape from the horrors of her life. Miss Burstyn is an award-winning actress who floats right under Hollywood's mainstream radar, but has the acting talent that will drive the audience right over the edge. Her story is emotionally touching, and intriguing to read. After finishing up the last few pages I went and watched some of my favorite films that she stars in. Knowing about her life story I now have a new perspective on her career and her acting style. With an attribution to the summary provided by the contributors over at Wikipedia, and with a little bit of editing that I have done, here is a recap of her early life:

Miss Burstyn was born Edna Rae Gillooly in Detroit, Michigan to Correine Marie and John Austin Gillooly, a building contractor. Because her parents divorced when she was young, Burstyn says she only remembers seeing her father one time when she was away at boarding school. At 19 years old, Burstyn says she sought out her father, hoping to establish a relationship with him, but the search led to a dead end. She refers to her mother as a tough, violent and controlling woman whom is a challenge to love unconditionally. In 1960, after two failed marriages, Ellen fell in love with actor Neil Burstyn whom she describes as a charming, funny, bright, talented and eccentric person. Sadly, his mental health had degenerated and he became schizophrenic and violent. Not too long after the change in his mental condition Neil left Ellen just before she became one the most celebrated actresses of the 1970s and '80s, with five Oscar nominations and one win in ten years. Miss Burstyn revealed in her biography that Neil had stalked her over a period of ten years whom she had divorced from by this time in her life. This included a violent incident of rape that went unpunished, as the police said that because the perpetrator was her husband no crime was committed. Ultimately, he committed suicide, upon which his parents sent Burstyn a telegram stating, "Congratulations, you've won another Oscar. Neil killed himself.”

What a sad way to begin her life, but she has proven herself to be a strong and independent adult. There are a lot of lessons that she's learned about life and it helped her grow as a person, which she wrote about in her book. She had written her entire autobiography by hand, and not on a computer. Being illiterate with the computer she considered writing her book in longhand easier for her since there are plenty of people in the world who could transcribe her copy for her. I could only imagine the large number of times she must have suffered through writer's cramp in order to pen a book that runs for several hundred (typewritten) pages. I highly recommend Lessons in Becoming Myself to every non-fiction reader. It is an amazing story of survival, and I am happy to see that she came out okay.