Leonard Bernstein: A Life

by Meryle Secrest

Book Overview

The most insightful and engrossing work we have had from the widely admired biographer of Frank Lloyd Wright ("Captivating ... The reader comes away with an understanding of Wright as a man as well as... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 067973757X
• ISBN13: 9780679737575
• Release Date: October 1995
• Publisher: Vintage Books USA
• Length: 471 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Read This One, Too....

I am a "late" fan of Bernstein, so went looking for a good biography. The place to start, obviously, is "Leonard Bernstein" by Humphrey Burton. That bio is much greater in depth and detail. Mr. Burton was LB's television producer and eventually his good friend. No anecdote is left untouched in his nicely arranged work and if you need all the gory details, that's where you go. However, Secrest's "Leonard Bernstein" A Life" is good for other reasons. He is able to step back a bit and talk about areas not covered in Burton's book. Two examples are the background and politics of the U.S. classical music environment during LB's lifetime and the negative effect of Bernstein's public life on his children's lives. I suspect Burton would have felt these were out of place for the former and out of bounds for the latter. However, both areas give great insight into Bernstein's effect on the world and should be told. Not being so personally close to the family, Secrest is able to write with a little more jaundiced eye. Also the myriad of photographs in Secrest's book, scattered throughout at appropriate places, puts faces to the names. I highly recommend this as a sort of companion volume to Burton's authoratative work. Since they are both inexpensive softcover purchases these days, get them both and enjoy Bernstein twice.