``People have asked me why I chose to be a dancer. I did not choose. I was chosen to be a dancer, and with that, you live all your life.'' This is Martha Graham, all right: intense, imperious, passionate, and at times surprisingly funny. She died early this year, still choreographing, still bitterly protesting old age, still fretting over her company's financial and artistic future. This, her own account of her life and work, is her vivid last word. Graham was born in 1894 (``Grover Cleveland was in his second presidential term...Victoria was still Queen''), in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. She reveals herself as a solitary, dramatic child in an unusual family: ``My childhood years were a balance of light and dark...the coal industry was dominant and everything we wore was eventually covered in soot.'' She takes us through her development as a dancer and choreographer, and is open and focused about the motivation and meaning of her work: ``There are always ancestral footsteps behind me, pushing me...gestures are flowing through me.'' On the strong female roles she has created: ``All the things I do are in every woman. Every woman is a Medea. Every woman is a Jocasta....'' This is not to say that men are not important to Graham: ``Men in all walks of life have sustained me. I adore men. Many have adored me.'' Many other choreographers and figures from the dance world figure here (her remarks on Lincoln Kirstein are priceless), as well as such varied personalities as Helen Keller, Madonna, and Halston. And Graham offers an honest, touching account of her brief marriage to choreographer Erick Hawkins; she tells us simply, ``There never was anyone after Erick.'' Paramount Pictures once offered a large sum to film her life story, Graham says. But she replied, ``No, absolutely not. I can ruin my own reputation in five minutes. I don't need help.'' These brief memoirs can only enhance her reputation by helping us remember the human side of a creative giant.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-385-26503-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1991
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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