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Product Identifiers
PublisherKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-101400041325
ISBN-139781400041329
eBay Product ID (ePID)57190043
Product Key Features
Book TitleWorlds of Lincoln Kirstein
Number of Pages736 Pages
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2007
TopicRich & Famous, Literary, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Dance / Classical & Ballet, American / General, Lgbt Studies / Gay Studies, Sociology / Urban
IllustratorYes
GenreArt, Performing Arts, Social Science, Biography & Autobiography
AuthorMartin Duberman
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height1.8 in
Item Weight41.1 Oz
Item Length9.5 in
Item Width6.6 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2006-048732
TitleLeadingThe
Dewey Edition22
Reviews"A central figure in 20th-century American modernism, Lincoln Kirstein edited a pioneering literary magazine and was the driving force behind George Balanchine's revolutionary New York City Ballet. Bancroft Prize-winner Duberman reveals in his absorbing biography a man blessed, agonizingly, with great artistic taste and vision unaccompanied by artistic talent . . . [Kirstein's] was a high-wire life sustained by a stupendous manic energy (later darkening into demented fits that necessitated electroshock) and enlivened by a parade of lovers of both sexes . . . Kirstein met everyone from Martha Graham to General Patton. Through Kirstein's funny, perceptive diary jottings and letters, Duberman paints an engaging portrait of bohemian New York and its high-society patrons . . . Duberman conjures an indelible sense of a creative urge that became a torturous pilgrimage toward an enigmatic muse." Publishers Weekly, "The encomia have been arriving this spring, for [Kirstein's] centenary. He is credited with bringing ballet to America . . . [and] it was [Kirstein and George Balanchine's] efforts that, in time, created a truly American style of dancing. . . . Duberman enumerates Kirstein's many endeavors in this important biography, the first. Among other things, Kirstein started the literary journalHound and Hornand also founded the scholarly journal Dance Index; he helped create a groundbreaking art society at Harvard; he had a role in shaping Lincoln Center; wrote fifteen books and countless articles on dance, literature, art, and film; laid the foundation for a Latin American art collection at the Museum of Modern Art, which was ahead of its time; and endorsed or otherwise was linked with seemingly everyone who mattered in the arts before midcentury . . . Kirstein's network reminds us how much American arts and letters at midcentury were shaped by a relatively small, largely Harvard-educated, mostly gay group of men who always complained about each other but together accomplished remarkable feats. No one worked more selflessly than Kirstein . . . . Kirstein's combative letters and diary [entries], quoted at length, enliven Duberman's biography. . . . In addition to biographies of Paul Robeson, James Russell Lowell, and others, Duberman has written various memoirs and histories of gay culture. He treats Kirstein as a kindred soul, with sympathy . . . [in this] admiring but balanced [biography]." Michael Kimmelman,The New York Review of Books "One hundred years since his birth, historians, critics and aesthetes alike are still trying to figure out just who Lincoln Kirstein really was . . . The title of Kirstein's first biography,The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein,implies the magnitude of the project. Kirstein, best known for luring Balanchine to America and co-founding with him the School of American Ballet in 1933, and the New York City Ballet in 1946, had his hands in so many pioneering cultural institutions, his social circles strewn across so many continents, that culling together all the necessary sources is in itself a Brobdingnagian task. As part of the 100th anniversary of his birth, City Ballet has dedicated its entire 2007 season to him. The Whitney Museum has mounted a show highlighting works from Kirstein's personal collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art will do the same this fall. And the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will open an exhibit of Kirstein's papers and artworks at the end of this month. Amid the crush of interest, Kirstein's religion plays no small role. In fact, Duberman's widely reviewed and well-received biography draws many of its conclusions about Kirstein's character from his complex religious feeling." Eric Herschthal,The Jewish Week "Last Friday was the 100th anniversary of Kirstein's birth, and among many tributes to him now, none can be finer than [the] extraordinarily fine biography of him by Martin Duberman.The Worlds of Lincoln Kirsteinis wonderfully written, in every way. Like Boswell's Life of Johnson, this book is great company. . . . Duberman [is] both a first-rate English stylist and a major queer historian . . . [He] has the rare ability to imagine how it was back then without letting go of the perspective we have now." Paul Parish,Bay Area Reporter "Few people have contributed more to ballet in America than Lincoln Kirstein, who imported George Balanchine and with him founded the New York City Ballet. Kirstein was also instrumental in creating Lincoln Center. One of the most perspicacious analysts of American culture, Duberman has painted a subtle, detailed port, "The arts in America owe plenty to Kirsteina brilliant, omnivorous personality who died in 1996. From the 1930s to the 80s he worked as a presenter, promoter, fund-raiser and impresario. He made his mark on the dance world by cofounding the New York City Ballet with choreographer George Balanchine. But Kirstein's worlds were not all highbrow and haughty: Duberman dares to consider Kirstein's tumultuous, sometimes clandestine and juicy private life as evidence of his high tolerance for riska necessary quality when bringing bold new art to a suspicious public." Time Out Chicago "Impressive . . . gripping . . . Duberman digs deeply, and compassionately, into [Lincoln Kirstein's] queer core, illuminating how Kirstein's sexuality shaped his impact on American arts, from the New York City Ballet to Lincoln Center. Dance fans will delight at Duberman's astute, unsparing critical summation of his bitchy, brilliant subject's relationship with dance choreographer George Balanchine . . . [Anyone] interested in Manhattan's gay demimonde will have great fun connecting the homosexual dots." The Bottomline "The encomia have been arriving this spring, for [Kirstein's] centenary. He is credited with bringing ballet to America . . . [and] it was [Kirstein and George Balanchine's] efforts that, in time, created a truly American style of dancing. . . . Duberman enumerates Kirstein's many endeavors in this important biography, the first. Among other things, Kirstein started the literary journalHound and Hornand also founded the scholarly journal Dance Index; he helped create a groundbreaking art society at Harvard; he had a role in shaping Lincoln Center; wrote fifteen books and countless articles on dance, literature, art, and film; laid the foundation for a Latin American art collection at the Museum of Modern Art, which was ahead of its time; and endorsed or otherwise was linked with seemingly everyone who mattered in the arts before midcentury . . . Kirstein's network reminds us how much American arts and letters at midcentury were shaped by a relatively small, largely Harvard-educated, mostly gay group of men who always complained about each other but together accomplished remarkable feats. No one worked more selflessly than Kirstein . . . . Kirstein's combative letters and diary [entries], quoted at length, enliven Duberman's biography. . . . In addition to biographies of Paul Robeson, James Russell Lowell, and others, Duberman has written various memoirs and histories of gay culture. He treats Kirstein as a kindred soul, with sympathy . . . [in this] admiring but balanced [biography]." Michael Kimmelman,The New York Review of Books "One hundred years since his birth, historians, critics and aesthetes alike are still trying to figure out just who Lincoln Kirstein really was . . . The title of Kirstein's first biography,The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein,implies the magnitude of the project. Kirstein, best known for luring Balanchine to America and co-founding with him the School of American Ballet in 1933, and the New York City Ballet in 1946, had his hands in so many pioneering cultural institutions, his social circles strewn across so many continents, that culling together all the necessary sources is in itself a Brobdingnagian task. As part of the 100th anniversary of his birth, City Ballet has dedicated its entire 2007 season to him. The Whitney Museum has mounted a show highlighting works from Kirstein's personal collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art will do the same this fall. And the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will open an exhibit of Kirstein's papers and artwork
Dewey Decimal792.8092
SynopsisA rich and revelatory biography of one of the crucial cultural figures of the twentieth century. Lincoln Kirstein's contributions to the nation's life, as both an intellectual force and advocate of the arts, were unparalleled. While still an undergraduate, he started the innovative literary journalHound and Horn,as well as the modernist Harvard Society for Contemporary Art-forerunner of the Museum of Modern Art. He brought George Balanchine to the United States, and in service to the great choreographer's talent, persisted, against heavy odds, in creating both the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet. Among much else, Kirstein helped create Lincoln Center in New York, and the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut; established the pathbreakingDance Indexand the country's first dance archives; and in some fifteen books proved himself a brilliant critic of art, photography, film, and dance. But behind this remarkably accomplished and renowned public face lay a complex, contradictory, often tortured human being. Kirstein suffered for decades from bipolar disorder, which frequently strained his relationships with his family and friends, a circle that included many notables, from W. H. Auden to Nelson Rockefeller. And despite being married for more than fifty years to a woman whom he deeply loved, Kirstein had a wide range of homosexual relationships throughout the course of his life. This stunning biography, filled with fascinating perceptions and incidents, is a major act of historical reclamation. Utilizing an enormous amount of previously unavailable primary sources, including Kirstein's untapped diaries, Martin Duberman has rendered accessible for the first time a towering figure of immense complexity and achievement.
LC Classification NumberPS3521.I74Z65 2007
