Her lean, clean looks and whiplash wit earned Nancy Gross from Pacific Grove the nickname Slim and a place in Truman Capote's Answered Prayers as the mordant Lady Coolbirth. Of all the men who fell for her— from Clark Gable to Ernest Hemingway—Slim married three: director Howard Hawks, who created Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not in her image; producer-agent Leland Hayward, the love of her life, whom she lost to Pamela Churchill; and Sir Kenneth Keith, the financier with the stiffest upper lip. In an excerpt from Slim (Simon and Schuster), writte...