A Ned Rorem Reader

Ned Rorem, composer and writer, is both a gifted memoirist and one of our most acerbic cultural commentators. This anthology of his musings on music, people, and life surveys the full range of his literary achievement and reflects the evolution of his sensibilities.

The first part of the book is devoted to writing of an autobiographical nature, including ruminations on being alone and on becoming a composer. The second part focuses on music and individuals from Bartók and Ravel to Edith Piaf and the Beatles. The final part consists of portraits and memorials of such figures as Martha Graham, Paul Bowles, Marc Blitzstein, Frank O’Hara, Allen Ginsberg, and Truman Capote. The book also includes a lengthy conversation on the art of the diary.

Ned Rorem, a prolific composer who is particularly well known for his more than four hundred songs, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for Air Music for Orchestra. He has published five volumes of diaries as well as numerous collections of his other writings. J. D. McClatchy is a poet and editor of the Yale Review.