Astonishing research and devotion will make this an enduring work of musical history and biography.
An incredibly detailed account of the work of the French composer.
Johnson, a pianist and professor of accompaniment who has published about other composers—Franz Schubert and Benjamin Britten among them—returns with a biography of—and paean to—Francis Poulenc (1899-1963). In nearly 500 pages, the author rarely utters a discouraging word, either about his subject’s character or his work. He calls one song “sumptuous” and another “a real jewel.” Mild negative criticisms appear only rarely—e.g., Poulenc “disliked sharing the limelight, even with much less gifted composers.” Johnson displays several recurring organizational features, generally divided by decade: a detailed chronology of Poulenc’s life, work, and historical events; and a composition-by-composition description and assessment, including lyrics in the original French accompanied by their English translations. The author often employs diction that only musicians and musical aficionados will appreciate—e.g., “the boldness of the fortissimo ninth chord (B flat major with a clashing C-natural) in the treble clef shelters a much more timid echo in the bass.” Johnson provides background on the poets whose work supplied the settings for Poulenc’s songs (principally Guillaume Apollinaire and Paul Éluard) and comments on Poulenc’s sexuality (he was gay but kept it extraordinarily private). Though this is not a work one would read like a traditional biography—the text is thick, demanding close attention—there are numerous gems scattered throughout: Poulenc’s admiration for singer Maurice Chevalier, his friendship with Christian Dior, his love of art and artists, and his work with Jean Cocteau. What principally emerges, however, is Poulenc’s undeniable brilliance as a pianist and composer as well as his work ethic and strength (he continually traveled throughout Europe and the U.S. for performances). Following his account of Poulenc’s death, Johnson includes some brief final sections about his friends, colleagues, and publishers.
Astonishing research and devotion will make this an enduring work of musical history and biography. (66 b/w illustrations)Pub Date: June 23, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63149-523-6
Page Count: 672
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
A substantive, dishy, entertaining glimpse into Hollywood royalty.
The Oscar-winning actor and producer opens up about filmmaking, sex, drugs, and escaping his father’s shadow.
Despite its casual, just-shooting-the-breeze title, Douglas’ memoir is detailed and precision-engineered to entertain; as a filmmaker who won his first Oscar as a producer (for 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), he knows a successful story needs clarity and conflict to work. The son of screen legend Kirk Douglas, he was well-acquainted with celebrity at an early age; witnessing his parents’ divorce, he spent much of his youth acting out. (He paid for college by selling weed by the suitcase-load.) After years of stalls and failures, he broke through on TV with the ’70s cop show The Streets of San Francisco. But small-screen work (along with his nepo-baby status) made breaking into big-screen roles harder until 1984’s Romancing the Stone made him a star and 1987’s Wall Street earned him a second Oscar. Douglas is candid about his industry struggles—like endless budget fights and betraying his father, who was promised the lead in Cuckoo’s Nest—and his reputation as a lothario. (Though married, he had an on-set affair with Kathleen Turner during Stone.) He’s also open about his alcohol and cocaine abuse, leading to a rehab stint, echoed in his son Cameron’s own struggles with addiction and recovery. He’s comfortable discussing controversies—the LGBTQ+ community’s protests of 1992’s Basic Instinct, his proto-MAGA character in 1993’s Falling Down—and plainly keeps an enemies list. But this story arc leaves him triumphant, with a loving wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), his family, his health (after a cancer scare), and a late-career Emmy for playing Liberace in Behind the Candelabra (2013).
A substantive, dishy, entertaining glimpse into Hollywood royalty.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781538782224
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
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