Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words (Hardcover)

Price: $37.99 Members: $34.19

In-Stock
Add to Cart PICK UP IN STORE - LEARN MORE

Buy Online and Pick-Up In-Store

You can order online and pick up in-person at our shop at Lincoln Center.

Add your items to the shopping cart, log in, and check out. When completing your order, choose "BUY AND PICK UP IN STORE" located next to the shipping address.

You will receive a confirmation email once your order is placed and a separate email notification once your order is ready to be picked up.

Most orders will be processed on the next day.

Once processed, you will have ten business days to pick up your order.

Add to Wish List

Item: 9781324091813

Description

Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words (Hardcover)
By Michael Owen

The first lyricist to win the Pulitzer Prize, Ira Gershwin (1896-1983) has been hailed as one of the masters of the Great American Songbook, a period which covers songs written largely for Broadway and Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1950s. Now, in the first full-length biography devoted to his life, Michael Owen brings Ira out at last from the long shadow cast by his younger and more famous brother George. 

Drawing on extensive archival sources and often using Ira’s own words, Owen has crafted a rich portrait of the modest man who penned the words to many of America’s best-loved songs, like “Fascinating Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.”

These fruits of Ira’s lyric genius sprang from the simplest of seeds: a hand-drawn weekly created for a cousin, an amateur newspaper co-written with friend and future lyricist Yip Harburg, columns in the school papers at Townsend Harris High School and, later, City College of New York. The details of his early literary efforts demonstrate both his developing ambition and the early signs of his talent. But while the road to becoming a successful lyricist was neither short nor smooth, it did lead Ira to the greatest creative partnership of his life.

George and Ira Gershwin collaborated on a string of hit Broadway shows in the 1920s and 1930s that resulted in popular and financial success and spawned a long string of songs that have become classics. Owen offers fascinating glimpses of their creative process, drawing on Ira’s diaries and other contemporary sources, as well as the close relationship between the two brothers. Hollywood soon beckoned and the brothers headed west to California to work in the movie business. Greater fame and fortune seemed right around the corner.

George Gershwin died in a Los Angeles hospital in July 1937. He was only 38 years old. His death marked a stark dividing line in Ira’s life, and from that point on much of his time and energy was devoted to the management of his brother’s estate and the care of his legacy. Accustomed to living in his brother’s shadow, it now threatened to overwhelm him. He worked to balance all the administrative tasks with a new series of collaborations with composers like Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern, Harry Warren, and Harold Arlen. Ira’s last Broadway work was in 1946, and several films and a book project – a collection of his lyrics with the stories behind them – occupied his later years along with the ongoing management of George’s affairs.

Ira Gershwin’s work with George left an enduring mark on American culture, as recognized by the Library of Congress in 2007 when it established the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, which has been awarded to artists like Paul Simon, Carole King, Tony Bennett, Paul McCartney, and Elton John. In Ira Gershwin: A Life in Words, Michael Owen brings the publicity-shy lyricist into the spotlight he deserves.

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Liveright (November 26, 2024)
  • Dimensions: 6.3” x 9.3”


Read More

History

Music Notes

Most Western music is based on a system of notation that evolved around 1600 out of earlier practices. The starting point for any opera is the full score, which contains all individual voices and instruments arranged in a specific order on the page. The written music—representing the sounds a composer creates in his head—then comes to life performed by singers onstage and played by the orchestra.

 

 

starstarstarstarstar Write the first review

No reviews have been written for this product.
Be the first one!  – Write a Review


(0) CART 212.501.3482
30–50% Off Flash Sale - Shop Now 30–50% Off Flash Sale - Shop Now

Stay in the Loop

Don't miss out on new arrivals, exclusive sales, special events, and more.

close (X)