The Letters of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.Edited by Andrew Schlesinger and Stephen Schlesinger(Random House, 631 pages, $35) Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. never explored the sweeping plains of my native Australia—indeed, it is hard to imagine him doing so when there remained parts…
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Richard Wagner: A Life In Music By Martin Geck (University of Chicago Press, 423 pages, $35) THE JUNE 1980 issue of Esquire asked rhetorically on its cover: “Is anyone in America not writing a screenplay?” Similar queries could be posed about present-day Wagneriana: Is…
Diaries 1924-1933: The Prodigal Son Serge Prokofiev, translated and annotated by Anthony Phillips (Cornell University Press, 1,125 pages, $60) Lina and Serge: The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev By Simon Morrison (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 336 pages, $26) UNTIL RECENTLY, outstanding composer-diarists…
Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century By Paul Kildea (Allen Lane, 665 pages, $45) THANKS TO THE CENTENARY of his birth this year, Benjamin Britten–related books are truly gushing from English publishers, what with Neil Powell’s Benjamin Britten:…