Gershwin

New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1987. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xv, [3], 436 pages. Includes 15 black & white photographs between pages 102 and 103, 19 black & white photographs between pages 150 and 151, 18 black and white photographs between pages 198 and 199, 17 black & white photographs between pages 270 and 271, and 10 black & white photographs between pages 318 and 319. Includes Preface, Epilogue: The Myths of Ira Gershwin; Compositions by George and Ira Gershwin; The New American Gershwins; From Tin Pan Alley...; ... to Broadway; "Experiment in Modern Music''; 1924; Modern Romantic; Interlude and Preludes; Hits and Misses; Americans in Paris; Transition; Broadway to Hollywood; Manhattan Rhapsody; Song Book; Porgy and Bess; The Goldwyn Coast; Epilogue: The Myths of Ira Gershwin; Compositions by George and Ira Gershwin; Bibliography; Notes on Sources; Acknowledgments; Selected Discography; and Index. Enriched with excerpts and insights from Jablonski's personal correspondence, interview tapes, and rare documents from the Gershwin Archive, this biography brings us closer to the real Gershwin than any biography that has gone before. Edward Jablonski (March 1, 1922 - February 10, 2004) was the author of several biographies on American cultural personalities, such as George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Alan Jay Lerner, and Irving Berlin, as well as books on aviation history. While working for the March of Dimes charity in New York, Jablonski wrote articles and music reviews for a number of small magazines as well as liner notes for albums; this was the beginning of a fifty-year freelance career. Derived from a Kirkus review: Jablonski, co-author of The Gershwin Years and veteran Gershwin authority, offers a valuable, up-to-date George Gershwin biography--strong on the least familiar works. The essential life-story is here: from Lower East Side boyhood to piano studies and Tin Pan Alley song-plugging; from single-song successes ("Swanee") to Broadway scores, Rhapsody in Blue, and 1920's super, celebrity; toward opera, from Of Thee I Sing to Porgy and Bess; to Hollywood for Fred Astaire films; and death at age 38 from an inoperable brain tumor. While some of Jablonski's sources are very familiar, he also draws on privately-held letters, journals, and interviews--many supplied by Jablonski's longtime mentor Ira--for fresh details and perspectives. (The collaborative process that produced Porgy and Bess is thus given unusually full, vivid treatment.) Also noteworthy is the focus on underappreciated Gershwin compositions: Jablonski singles out virtually unknown songs that deserve rehearing; and he gives special attention to the Second Rhapsody--condemning its reorchestration after Gershwin's death. On the other hand, however, while providing extensive detail on Let 'Em Eat Cake, Jablonski's discussion of its famous predecessor, Of Thee I Sing, is less detailed; similarly, the story behind Porgy and Bess is much more firmly described than the opera itself. And, partly because of Jablonski's evocative style, a sense of Gershwin's character emerges here; as for his love-life, Jablonski deemphasizes the libertine aspect, largely echoes previous biographers re George's infatuation with Paulette Goddard, expands a bit on the relationship with Kay Swift, and concludes that "he apparently did not want the kind of marriage that his parents endured." Throughout, in fact, one senses that Jabionski's Gershwin-family ties may be coloring his biographical approach. Still, notwithstanding this, students and fans will welcome this solid, conscientious chronicle--which also includes a section on Ira's post-1937 career, a full list of songs and concert works, and a "Selected Discography" rich in critical commentary.