DIAGHILEFF

The tremendous success of Nijinski a year and more ago gives ground for belief that there is a market waiting for this life of the great impresario, who brought Nijinski before the public, and with whom -- through his wife -- he bitterly quarreled. Mr. Haskell is determined to meet Mme. Nijinski on her own ground, to disprove her claim in her virtual attack on Daighiloff. This he succeeds in doing, though I could wish he had simply told his story and shown, by the very weight of accomplishment, beyond and outside the realm where Nijinski was supreme, that Diaghileff did not stand or fall with his famous dancer. The first part of his life was given to arousing his countrymen to an awareness of the artistic riches within their own borders, in freeing Russian art from the trammels of tradition; next he wanted to show Russia to the world, through her artists, her sculptors, her composers and singers. This he did. It was but a natural step from opera to ballet -- but the ballet won its laurels in Paris, in London, in North and South America -- but not in Russia. It was a colorful and dangerous and dramatic life, and the story is well told, though there is still place for a biography more interpretative of the man himself, rather than the things for which he stood. Sure of a good start -- on the ground of the Nijinski success. The quality of the book itself will carry it along. Its appeal is wider than the dance -- go after your artists and musicians.