The Collected Works of Harold Clurman: Six Decades of Commentary on Theatre, Dance, Music, Film, Arts, and Letters

Clurman, Harold; Edited By Marjorie Loggia and Glenn Young

ISBN 10: 1557831327 / ISBN 13: 9781557831323

Published by Applause Books, New York, 1994

About this Item

First Applause printing stated. With an ink inscription by Bob Moss, probably Director Robert Moss, about a "Shakespearean Journey," with a long amended quote from Hamlet: "The purpose of playing was and is to hold the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure." xvii, 1102 pp with a few b & w plates. Intro by Robert Whitehead. Heavy book requiring extra shipping costs.

Seller Inventory # 016260

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Collected Works of Harold Clurman: Six Decades of Commentary on Theatre, Dance, Music, Film, Arts, and Letters
• Publisher: Applause Books, New York
• Publication Date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1557831327
• ISBN 13: 9781557831323
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Printing Stated
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine Price Clipped

About this title

Synopsis

For six decades, Harold Clurman illuminated our artistic, social, and political awareness in thousands of reviews, essays, and lectures. His work appeared indefatigably in The Nation, The New Republic, The London Observer, The New York Times, Harper's, Esquire, New York Magazine, and more. The Collected Works of Harold Clurman captures over six hundred of Clurman's encounters with the most significant events in American theatre – as well as his regular passionate embraces of dance, music, art and film. This chronological epic offers the most comprehensive view of American theatre seen through the eyes of our most extraordinary critic. 1102 pages, hardcover.

Reviews

Cofounder of the Group Theatre and director of such notable plays as Clifford Odets's Awake and Sing! and Carson McCullers's Member of the Wedding , Clurman (1901-1980) also reviewed other people's theatrical endeavors, primarily for the Nation and the New Republic . Virtually every article in this comprehensive collection exudes the wide-ranging curiosity and deep knowledge of all the arts and their history that led many to regard Clurman as the finest drama critic of his day. (The book also contains a smattering of material on painting, music, film and ballet.) It's unfortunate that such fine work is ill-served by the editors of this collection. TV writer/producer Loggia and Applause Books publisher Young provide no biographical information and hardly any annotation to clarify references and sources; as a result, Clurman's astute commentary floats in a historical vacuum that would have appalled its author, who firmly believed that all art has a social context. The editors also do Clurman a disservice by their lack of selectivity: his cogent analysis of the commercial theater's shortcomings loses its force by being repeated virtually unchanged in several essays, and the appendices (which clumsily violate the book's chronological structure) could have been eliminated altogether. Still, those who care about theater and criticism will savor Clurman's passionate, pointed prose.

Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information, Inc.