Leonard Bernstein: The Political Life of an American Musician
Barry Seldes
Abstract
From his dazzling conducting debut in 1943 until his death in 1990, Leonard Bernstein's star blazed brilliantly. This biography of Bernstein's political life examines his career against the backdrop of cold war America—blacklisting by the State Department in 1950, voluntary exile from the New York Philharmonic in 1951 for fear that he might be blacklisted, signing a humiliating affidavit to regain his passport—and the factors that by the mid-1950s allowed his triumphant return to the New York Philharmonic. The book links Bernstein's great concert-hall and musical-theatrical achievements and hi ... More
From his dazzling conducting debut in 1943 until his death in 1990, Leonard Bernstein's star blazed brilliantly. This biography of Bernstein's political life examines his career against the backdrop of cold war America—blacklisting by the State Department in 1950, voluntary exile from the New York Philharmonic in 1951 for fear that he might be blacklisted, signing a humiliating affidavit to regain his passport—and the factors that by the mid-1950s allowed his triumphant return to the New York Philharmonic. The book links Bernstein's great concert-hall and musical-theatrical achievements and his real and perceived artistic setbacks to his involvement with progressive political causes. Making extensive use of previously untapped FBI files as well as overlooked materials in the Library of Congress's Bernstein archive, the text illuminates the ways in which Bernstein's career intersected with the twentieth century's most momentous events. The book reveals often ignored intersections of American culture and political power.
Keywords:
cold war,
Leonard Bernstein,
blacklisting,
New York Philharmonic,
FBI files,
American culture,
political power
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2009 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780520257641 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: May 2012 |
DOI:10.1525/california/9780520257641.001.0001 |
