Carrie Fisher's death dims the many hopes of Star Wars fans eager to see her continued portrayal of Princess Leia in the Disney-revived franchise. Fisher's passing also marks the loss of a talented author, screenwriter and humorist, whose work includes candid depictions of her struggles with bipolar disorder and drug addiction. She died a week after suffering medical complications on a flight home from the European leg of her book tour for The Princess Diarist (Blue Rider Press), a memoir chronicling the making of the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, including her affair with married co-star Harrison Ford.
Wishful Drinking (2008), based on her one-woman play of the same name, and Shockaholic (2011) were the first of Fisher's humorous nonfiction memoirs, but not the first time she shined a lighthearted light on her sometimes dark past. Published by Simon & Schuster in 1987, Postcards from the Edge is a semi-autobiographical novel about an actress trying to remain sober after a drug overdose. It tells the tale of Suzanne Vale (played by Meryl Streep in the 1990 film adaptation) through epistolary postcards and letters, monologues and, finally, in third-person narration as the actress exits rehab and navigates new relationships and professional pitfalls. It was last published in 2010 ($16, 9781439194003). --Tobias Mutter
