Book Review: Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn (A Walk on the Wild Side with Andy Warhol’s Most Fabulous Superstar) by Jeff Copeland
Genre: nonfiction, memoir
Length: 301 pgs (Paperback)
Publication Year: 2025
Content Warnings: alcoholism, transphobia, substance abuse, sex work
I was knee-deep in writing and researching Holly Woodlawn for her entry in my Not Just Cistory series, and had discovered that there was a frustrating lack of information about Holly Woodlawn’s life between 1972 when Lou Reed’s song “Walk on the Wild Side”, which features Holly as the subject of verse one, and her death in 2015 to brain and liver cancer. That’s 43 years lost from the world-wide-web.
Not that anyone needs to document their entire life and share that online, but to me it felt like that only the parts of her life that involved her enriching men (Woodlawn starred in Andy Warhol’s Trash in 1969) were the ones recorded. There was barely any mention of her 1991 autobiography, A Low Life in High Heels, (which is available to read for free on Internet Archive!) either. However, one article I discovered was an interview that mentioned a newly released book about Holly Woodlawn during the 1980s and 1990s, written by her friend Jeff Copeland.
I discovered, to my delight, that this new book, Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn*, was available via the inter-library-loan system that my public library is a part of! It was even available right away. I put it on hold and it was delivered to my local branch within a few days.
But, Noah, you might be saying, we know the library is awesome, what about the book? Well, fellow book-lovers, let’s get into it. This book is, firstly, a memoir, describing Jeff Copeland’s time being Holly Woodlawn’s friend, and writing the aforementioned A Low in High Heels with Holly. It’s not surprising then, that the book starts with a bit about Copeland’s life before moving to Hollywood and meeting Woodlawn.
He first saw Holly at a party, from afar, but was so taken by her aura he made a point of contacting her and from there their friendship bloomed.
The book follows both Jeff’s and Holly’s drive to reach their own respective dreams. Jeff wants to write screenplays that become award-winning movies, and Holly is determined to recapture her fame from her time in Warhol’s Factory.
Mid-chapter six is when Woodlawn and Copeland begin writing what would become A Low Life in High Heels. The process stretches across multiple chapters, but Copeland intersperses the years-long process with their various exploits and endeavors which characterize the experience of scraping by in 1980s Hollywood.
Copeland’s writing style is very open, and it felt like I was being confided in by a friend. The tone is irreverent, and the honesty of the story rings through, even though certain details are combined or altered to protect the anonymity of individuals (which is typical for memoirs). Black and white photographs and scans of letters and other ephemera are liberally sprinkled throughout the pages, and there is, of course, a glossy insert section in the center, which features a selection of color and black and white photos of Holly Woodlawn and some of her contemporaries.
This book delivered exactly what I was looking for while I was writing the blog post; a look at Woodlawn’s life after the most-well-known bits, and just as I expected Woodlawn lived a fully interesting life beyond Warhol and Reed.
During the process of trying to turn A Low Life in High Heels into a movie, Jeff and Holly had a falling out over the screenplay rights. Copeland had made it clear from the start that he wanted to write the screenplay for the memoir, and wasn’t willing to compromise on that, while Holly was more focused on the movie being made regardless of who the writer was.
The way Copeland writes about Holly during this last part of the book, and even throughout was something that I really appreciated. He was honest in his perception of Holly. By that I mean, he didn’t deny how much he loved and cared for her, as well as how she influenced his life and career. On the other side of the same coin, he is honest about how Woodlawn hurt him, and how their friendship ended. He still cared about her deeply, and does share what he did know about the rest of her life.
Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn* was not just a wealth of information about Holly Woodlawn’s life, but also a wonderfully intimate read that illuminated the reality of being friends with someone who was so dedicated to her dreams, struggled with addiction, and hurt the people close to her (as we all do from time to time and to different extents). Copeland does an excellent job depicting the specific time and place that their friendship existed within. The setting comes alive both through his words, and the included pictures. Those who are fans of Woodlawn, or are interested in queer history will find this book a worthwhile read.
Copeland, J. (2025). Love You Madly, Holly Woodlawn. Feral House.
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