Ed Sikov talked with guest host Susan Page on the Diane Rehm Show about his biography, Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis. In addition to chronicling her rise in Hollywood, the book explores her upbringing, relationships, and studio battles.

From Sikov’s Web site: “Dark Victory is a twenty-first-century rethinking of this titanic actress, whose centenary will be in 2008. Treating her films at least as acutely as she herself did–and often more admiringly–Dark Victory traces Davis’s rise to stardom at Warner Bros., her powerful drive to wrangle and oppose, her bitter disappointments and sporadic moments of public triumph, her four failed marriages, and her strategies for continuing her career in the face of age and changing popular tastes. It covers Davis’s films on an equal footing with her personal life because she believed in her work and her work was terrific. Dark Victory takes that belief as a starting point. She wasn’t just a star but a gifted artist who changed the face of acting. This book respects her talent.”

You can listen to the interview here.