Kirk and Anne

Kirk and Anne: Letters of Love, Laughter, and a Lifetime in Hollywood is the story of film legend and charismatic centenarian Kirk Douglas and his wife of sixty-two years, Anne Buydens. The lessons of a life well-lived and untold stories of their enduring love unfold through the couple’s own candid commentary and a treasure trove of priceless letters from their personal archives. Painstakingly maintained by Anne over the course of more than six decades and never before made public, the correspondence includes candid details of their (often turbulent) courtship and marriage, set against the backdrop of Kirk’s screen triumphs in films ranging from Lust For Life to Paths of Glory and Spartacus.

Through the letters themselves and Kirk and Anne’s words, never-before-told stories emerge about the legendary stars they knew so well: Lauren Bacall, Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Gregory Peck, Cole Porter, John Wayne, Tony Curtis, and son Michael Douglas; fascinating first-hand accounts of Hollywood film sets and dinner parties; exotic tales of travel to over forty countries as goodwill ambassadors. There are personal stories of presidents and first ladies (JFK and Jackie, LBJ and Lady Bird, Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter, Bill and Hillary Clinton and, “Ronnie” and Nancy Reagan), and powerful memories of both joy and sadness (Kirk’s near-fatal helicopter crash, his astonishing recovery from a debilitating stroke, the tragic death of their youngest son). Complemented by dozens of previously unpublished photos, Kirk and Anne candidly details the adventurous, oftentimes comic, and poignant reality behind the glamour of a Hollywood life, as only a couple of sixty-two years (and counting) could tell it.