Joan Rivers was more than a legendary comedian; she was an icon and a role model to millions, a fearless pioneer who left a legacy of expanded opportunity when she died in 2014.
Her life was a dramatic roller-coaster of triumphant highs and devastating lows: the suicide of her husband, her feud with Johnny Carson, her estrangement from her daughter, her many plastic surgeries, her ferocious ambition and her massive insecurities.
The Joan Rivers story is told in the new biography, Last Girl Before Freeway: The Life, Loves, Losses, and Liberation of Joan Rivers, by Leslie Bennetts. Bennetts is a veteran journalist who was the first woman ever to cover a presidential campaign for The New York Times and was a contributing editor for Vanity Fair for nearly 25-years.
