AIN'T NOBODY'S FOOL: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton
MARTHA ACKMANN
St. Martin's Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$15.99 ebook, preorder now for delivery on 30 December 2025
Rating: 5* of five
The Publisher Says: A larger-than-life new biography of country music legend and philanthropist Dolly Parton.
In Ain't Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton, Martha Ackmann chronicles the life of an American Original. From her impoverished childhood in the Smoky Mountains to international stardom as a singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist, Dolly Parton has exceeded everyone's expectations except her own. During a time when the Beatles set the standard for contemporary music, Dolly appeared on a local country music television show that her high school classmates thought was pure cornpone. The day after her high school graduation, she boarded a bus for Nashville, but record executives turned her down. One said her voice sounded like a screech owl.
When Dolly finally got her foot in the door, her talent and focus catapulted her to the top of country charts, the pop world, and movie stardom. Yet her success came at a price. Shunned by many in Nashville who saw her ambition as a betrayal of her country music roots, Dolly became the target of death threats, lawsuits, and a judge who threatened to throw her in jail. She nearly collapsed on-stage and later succumbed to depression that pushed her to the brink, but she refused to be counted out and came back stronger than ever developing Dollywood, the amusement park that became the economic engine of East Tennessee, and founding the Imagination Library that provides free books to children around the world. Her philanthropy to health organizations led to creation of the Moderna COVID vaccine. And, finally, she returned to her roots, recording bluegrass albums that became the most celebrated of her unparalleled 60-year career.
Ain't Nobody's Fool is a deep dive into the social, historical, and personal forces that made Dolly Parton one of the most beloved and unifying figures in public life and includes interviews with friends, family members, school mates, Nashville neighbors, members of her band, studio musicians, producers, and many others. It also features never before seen photographs and unearthed documents shedding light on her family's hardscrabble life. More than anything, Martha Ackmann's fresh and animated new book proves Dolly Parton knows just who she is and she ain't nobody's fool.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Author Ackmann, she of The Mercury 13, knows how to present the stories of women in powerful positions without triumphalizing or trivializing their struggles, obstacles, and successes. Miss Dolly deserves no better biographer.
As a longtime fan of the woman, and one who came to appreciate her musical talents despite not much liking the genre she's performed in for decades, I enjoyed my time spent here. It was a lot like renewing my acquaintance with someone once dear who's been out of touch. A couple years ago I reviewed an illustrated book about her career, DOLLY PARTON: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Life, with a similar degree of pleasure.
What I most enjoy about reading the life and times of Miss Dolly in this book is the context, the societal setting of her triumphs and her struggles. The way the book is written is to offer a fan a history lesson sweetened by a favorite celebrity's life experiences. This is, to me, a strength...I'm alway interested in why and how before what. The greatest stregth of the read is the very clear-eyed assessment of the whys and hows...overcoming misogyny to make a huge mark in the music and entertainment industry, overcoming depression and isolation to turn notoriety into lasting fame...all while using her celebrity to serve, to help, to lift others higher than they could have reached on their own.
It is inspiring, humbling, enlightening.
What an ordinary person would've done when faced with those obstacles is...surrender, collapse, give up. It's a mark of Miss Dolly's indomitable spirit and drive that she collapsed but rebounded; failed but got up to do it again, only better; got rejected, but went where she was wanted, instead of curling up in a ball and crying until the cows came home. It's not luck alone that makes someone successful, and this book makes that so very clear you can see it from space.
As a biographer of a living person Author Ackmann took full advantage of the mountains and mountains of information our modern age makes available. The notes are copious, but you can ignore them if you like. I myownself was delighted to see them because the force of nature that is Miss Dolly deserves all the ink spilled on her doings in television production, literacy programs, the music and theme-park industries...the list is impressive.
What you won't get in this work is celebri-tea. There's nothing breathlessly revealed, no salacious little gossipy nuggets. This is a biography about a very serious, focused, driven person whose successes span more than sixty years and counting.
It is respectful. That is refreshing, warranted, and welcome.
I left the read more uplifted than entertained. Again, to me, a feature not a bug. i think it's a great Yule gift for your Dolly fan, for anyone who feels ground down and needs uplift without treacle, for someone who admires women's success stories.
Pretty much anybody not into toxic masculinity, then.
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