Sarah “Sally” Snyder, a young, struggling actress, was found dead in a New York City apartment on the eve of her 22nd birthday, about two weeks before Christmas 1973. There was a note, and the autopsy revealed a lethal mix of alcohol and barbiturates. She had a history of depression and had attempted to take her own life once before, at the age of 18. The body was identified by Sally’s stepfather in the city morgue, and the death was ruled a suicide. For the authorities, the case was closed.
But not so for Sally’s mother, famed astrologer Linda Goodman. Born Mary Alice Kemery, Goodman became, with the publication of Sun Signs in 1968, the first astrologer ever to climb the New York Times Best-Seller List. The paperback rights for her second book, 1978’s Love Signs, were sold for $2.5 million, establishing an industry record at the time.
Astrology may be defined as the belief that the position of certain astronomical objects in the sky—usually the planets of the solar system, plus the sun and the moon—at the moment of one’s birth may predict facts about personality and life. It was created in the Middle East, in the area of present-day Iraq, some 3,000 years ago. Astrology’s popularity has waxed and waned over the centuries; today, it’s a multibillion-dollar business. Goodman is credited with attuning it to New Age sensibilities and turning astrology from a niche interest into a pop-culture juggernaut. In the 1970s and 1980s, she was the most famous and successful astrologer in the world. And the stars told her, in no uncertain terms, that her daughter was still alive.
