Grayson Hall was a widely acclaimed New York Theatre actress, 1964 Academy Award nominee and co-star of the 1960s-70s iconic Gothic television serial, Dark Shadows. Grayson Hall: A Hard Act to Follow (2006) reviews the evolution of Philadelphia's Shirley Grossman into the cosmopolitan Grayson Hall. The biography discusses her early life surrounded by eccentric socialist-revolutionary minded aunts and uncles, her early first marriage and subsequent second marriage to writer Allison Samuel Hall. The biography reviews, summarizes and provides anecdotes on her wide range of theatrical, television, radio and film appearances including John Huston's Night of the Iguana, the heralded turns on stage as two of Jean Genet's madams -- Irma in The Balcony and Warda in The Screens, and corrects the record regarding Grayson's arrival on, and participation in, ABC's Dark Shadows.

Comments and reminiscences from Grayson's family, friends and colleagues including Sam and Matthew Hall, Sylvia Miles, Ted Mann, John Guare, etc. pepper the text. Included are several previously unpublished personal and theatical photos.

R. J. Jamison lives in New York. She is originally from rural Kansas, a graduate of McPherson College and previously lived in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.