Facts about The Glass Castle
- 08
Before achieving literary fame, Jeannette Walls worked as a gossip columnist for New York magazine and MSNBC while hiding her impoverished upbringing from colleagues.
- 07
Jeannette Walls' parents, Rose Mary and Rex, continued living in New York City in a townhouse even after their daughter achieved literary success, maintaining their unconventional lifestyle into their later years.
- 06
Rex Walls, Jeannette's father in the memoir, worked as an electrician and gambler who repeatedly promised to build his family a glass castle but never completed the structure.
- 05
In her memoir, Jeannette Walls describes her family living in a one-room house in Welch, West Virginia, during the 1970s without running water or electricity despite her father Rex's promises to build the titular glass castle.
- 04
The 2017 film adaptation premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January before its wider theatrical release in August, receiving mixed critical reviews despite strong performances from its cast.
- 03
Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton adapted The Glass Castle into a 2017 film starring Brie Larson as adult Jeannette and Woody Harrelson as her father Rex Walls.
- 02
Over 4 million copies of The Glass Castle have sold worldwide since its 2005 publication, making it one of the best-selling memoirs of the 21st century.
- 01
Jeannette Walls published her memoir The Glass Castle in 2005, spending three years writing the book after her parents' deaths in the 1990s.