Gwen Davis

Gwen Davis (May 11, 1934 – April 4, 2023) was an American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, songwriter, journalist and poet.

Davis has written eighteen novels, including the bestseller The Pretenders. She has also written about travel for the Wall Street Journal Europe, for online publications such as the Huffington Post, maintained a popular personal blog, Report from the Front, and a blog reviewing Broadway theater productions, Will Blog for Broadway.

Davis died on April 4, 2023, at the age of 88. She leaves behind a son and two grandchildren.

Life Davis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and grew up in New York City, in Manhattan. Her parents were divorced. Her father, real estate developer Lew Davis, later served as mayor of Tucson, winning office in 1961. Her parents' separation when she was five affected her the rest of her life. She attended Bryn Mawr College. She scripted a famous movie, What a Way to Go, and wrote a play produced on Broadway, The Best Laid Plans. Bindrim, once nearly kicked out of the American Psychological Association, was known for holding what he called "nude marathons"—several clients were "placed in a warm pool for long sessions of touching and massaging, talking and sometimes shouting or acting out rage". After the novel was published, Bindrim sued Davis and Doubleday & Company for libel, on the grounds that it had defamed him.

Davis claimed she had used her real-life experiences to inspire fiction, but that Bindrim was not the psychologist in her fictional story, and did not resemble him—the character she depicted was overweight, looked like Santa Claus, and had a Ph.D. When the case came to trial, Bindrim, who had previously been bald and clean shaven, and who held only a master's degree, had by then gained weight, grown a white beard, and been granted a Ph.D. from International College in Westwood, California. (Founded in 1970, International College claimed it had "no classrooms, no lecture halls, no resident faculty." An unaccredited institution, it is now out of existence.) These changes made him appear like the psychologist in the book. He won his lawsuit against Davis and her publisher, Doubleday. Eventually, Davis settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.