Diahann: An Autobiography

I decided to read Diahann: An Autobiography when I read The Legs Are the Last to Go: Aging, Acting, Marrying, and Other Things I Learned the Hard Way and realized it was her second autobiography. Even though Diahann: An Autobiography has many of the same stories as her second autobiography, I didn’t feel like I was wasting my time. Her ghostwriters are different in each autobiography, and they take different approaches to her life. The second autobiography is more thematic so it jumps around a bit chronologically whereas the first autobiography is more traditional and chronological. Diahann Carroll is so interesting that I am willing to read about her stories two times! Carroll describes her career encounters with racism in both books, but it really hits home in this autobiography when she describes her lack of work soon after winning a Tony award (she beat Elaine Stritch) and being nominated for an Academy Award. An honest agent basically refuses to represent her in spite of her accomplishments because she didn’t want to work so hard to convince people to hire a black woman. Carroll describes her failed relationships in both books, but in this autobiography, she really confronts the reality that she was physically abused. In the second book, so much time has passed between the incidents and therapy, that she appears to be largely over it and find the whole experience amusing.