Product Description

A portrait of Leonard Berstein celebrates his roles as a child prodigy, famous composer of such productions as West Side Story, homosexual philanderer, adoring husband, charismatic artist, and calculating businessman. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1841772 in Books
• Published on: 1995-10-31
• Released on: 1995-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 471 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Because this study, by a biographer better known for her books on art figures (Frank Lloyd Wright, Bernard Berenson, Salvador Dali) is the second major one of Bernstein this year, comparisons with the first, by British TV producer Humphrey Burton (Nonfiction Forecasts, Feb. 28), are inevitable. Both biographies are valuable. Burton enjoyed official access to family and papers and Secrest did not, with the perhaps natural consequence that Burton presents Bernstein in a more kindly light. On the other hand, Secrest can approach the maestro with a better sense, as an American, of his cultural context. Secrest is definitively superior on young Lenny's relations with his family; she also offers a more vivid, unvarnished picture of his final unhappy decade, during which he seemed determined, by his outre behavior, to drive away even those who loved and admired him. On the early successes and the golden years from the mid-1940s to the mid-'70s, both books offer a sense of the headlong excitement of Bernstein's prodigious flowering. Burton is stronger on Bernstein the composer, however, giving a far better sense of the value of his work and its place in American music, while Secrest contents herself with contemporary commentary. On basics, these two solid, highly readable books agree: the maestro had a vast talent, particularly as a conductor, that even his regrettable later personal excesses could not diminish. Photos. 35,000 first printing.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Access to Bernstein's papers was denied Secrest (Frank Lloyd Wright, LJ 9/1/92) and given to Humphrey Burton (Leonard Bernstein, Doubleday, 1994). Thus, this second big Bernstein book of 1994 has a different documentary foundation and draws on a different set of interviews, underscoring the point that Bernstein's legacy demands multiple interpretations. Secrest takes issue with some legends, repeats and supports other details, and allows herself to remain perplexed by remaining mysteries. She applies Karen Horney's description of "demoniacal obsession" to Bernstein's perfectionist need to do it all in music: create, re-create, conduct, teach, and inspire. But her welcome perspective allows him his failures, as he never did himself, and credits him with never losing his enthusiasm, the tempering of obsession that makes achievement possible. Recommended as a companion to Burton's work.
--Bonnie Jo Dopp, formerly with District of Columbia P.L.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Another big Lenny B. bio, jam-packed with accomplishment and angst. This is not a terrible book, and there are occasional passages of nice insight. Ultimately, however, the limitations that biographer Secrest admits at the outset prove to be too much for her. She is not a music historian, her previous subjects mostly having been figures from architecture and the visual arts (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1992, etc.), and her self-professed inability to evaluate Bernstein as composer exacerbates the inherent difficulties of writing his life so soon after his death. ``Various family members, close friends, and colleagues'' refused to talk to her because the Bernstein estate was contracted to another biographer (presumably Humphrey Burton, author of Leonard Bernstein, p. 260); for the same reason, she did not have access to the ``vast Bernstein archives.'' There were, of course, still plenty of folks who would talk (and talk and talk) to her about the maestro, and they had a lot to say, on every now-familiar subject from L.B.'s ambivalent sexuality to his podium manners, his business acumen, and his skills as father and teacher. If it were not for the thematic and chronological connective passages that display Secrest's skill as a biographer, the book could be called Reminiscences on Bernstein. Predictably, not all of the lengthy, sometimes rambling, quotations are of equal merit; all are self- interested and some don't make sense. We hear much about Bernstein's conflicts--conducting vs. composing, his attraction to men vs. women--but in the absence of an overview of his creative legacy (which simply may not be possible at this early date), the reader winds up feeling merely exhausted by Lenny's energy level. Another book for the growing shelf from which some Maynard Solomon or musical Walter Jackson Bate will have to winnow when the time comes to write a critical biography rather than the Bernstein story. (100 b&w photos) (First printing of 35,000) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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.

Bernstein chronology
The book is informative, but not well organized. It jumps back and forth in time too much. Also, the author's lack of musical knowledge shows.

Not too much here
If you have been taught that a book provides more information, analysis, and complexity of thought than visual media, this biography is an exception. One learns very little about Leonard Bernstein here, and you'd be better of (given the choice) to see his concerts for Young People series or the documentary of the making of the fairly bad West Side Story operata, featuring Jose Carreras looking like a bumbling goofball and Bernstein acting like a college music director who had to pick the captain of the football team as a lead in a musical--which is too bad since I believe Bernstein cast him). This book is quite lackluster, which is surprising given the subject matter. It does not address, in depth, any of the internal sufferings or external battles Bernstein waged among the musicati or his deep conflict with homosexuality and his orthodox Jewish roots. What the book does, and this is a good thing is show how Bernstein--despite high brow critics' condenscension--widened the audience for classical music far more than even Pavorati, and that his success included talent, P.R., celebrity, gossip--those things that are uniquely American, and how he was determined to keep his American roots intact, which, among other things had him eschew studying extensively in Europe. In addition, you get an understanding of Bernsteins' 'strangeness,' that rare quality that Harold Bloom talks about that is an ingredient of masterful writers. Secrest does not disparage Bernstein's emotionalism as lots of die-hard classical music aficionados do. It's what made Bernstein who he was, and Secrest makes it evident that although Bernstein created some lousy music, classical music snobs who disparage him owe his a big favor for being a public personality. Without him, these same individuals would have a lot less opportunity to even enjoy classical music since Bernstein helped to create a market for it. He did for music what Carter Burden (former National Gallery director) who mastered the marketing concept of the blockbuster art exhibit. Yea, you could say it is a bit gimmicky, but I prefer that than demolishing art museums and building malls and parking lots in their place.