At the age of five Shirley Temple became the worldamprsquos most famous and acclaimed childampmdashthe most talented beautiful child performer ever to capture the publicamprsquos imagination. By the time she was ten she had either met or had received words of admiration from almost everyone of distinction. Ninetenths of the world could recognize her on sight. She singlehandedly cheered an entire nation caught in the firm grip of a depression. Her films saved a major studio from bankruptcy. She earned more than the President of the United States and lived in her own juniorsized San Simeon. As lionized idolized and protected as royalty Shirley Temple was the one and only American Princess. Shirley Temple is brought into focus in this definitive intimate portrait of her as a child and as the woman that child became a woman forced to live her entire life in the shadow of her own past glory. We follow the tumultuous events and disappointments that marked Shirley Templeamprsquos meteoric rise to unprecedented fame as a child star her fall as an adolescent who had outgrown her appeal and her surprising ascent into a word figure as ambassador to the United Nations Chief of Protocol for the United States and Ambassador to Ghana her ampldquoprincess in the toweramprdquo upbringing that isolated her from friends and real childamprsquos play and from studio coworkers as well her obsessive relationship with her mother Gertrude who lived her life through her famous daughter her power over one of Hollywoodamprsquos greatest despotsampmdashDarryl Zanuck her fairytale marriage to John Agar that became a nightmare filled with flaunted infidelities and alcoholism her romance with Charles Black and her transformation from film start to society matron television tycoon to American diplomat her courageous battle with cancer and her everpresent realization that ampldquolittle Shirley Templeamprsquosamprdquo greatness would always exceed that of the grown woman. Shirley Templeamprsquos m