Portrait Gallery: Artists, Impresarios, Intimates - Hardcover

De Mille, Agnes

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395528097 ISBN 13: 9780395528099

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 1990

Synopsis

The author shares her personal impressions of Isadora Duncan, Katherine Dunham, Billy Rose, Sol Hurok, and the Shuberts, as well as her uncle, Cecil B. DeMille

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

A heroine of American dance, choreographer de Mille in her 12th book proves expert at telling tales of other legendary folk, famous or obscure, from her household cook ("she existed like a ghost, a very fat one, in the back room") to ethereal English ballerina Alicia Markova ("a rebuke to everything gross in the world"). The volume is divided into four parts, "Artists," "Impresarios," "The de Milles" and "Intimates," each full of delicious, sometimes ruthless observations. Especially good at reckoning with the destructive forces that can undo us, de Mille is a realist whose sentences roll with the pugnacious rhythms of particular truths: Isadora Duncan was an "emotional commando"; ballet financier Marquis de Cuevas's bedroom had "the air of a crypt made cozy with superstition." De Mille is also a wit willing to take on herself. She has an acute eye, an exceptional ear for language; she changed the course of American dance and musical theater and here performs the inestimable service of preserving their vital signs.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Eighty-year-old De Mille has drawn on her rich and varied life as dancer, choreographer, daughter, wife, and mother for the subjects of these 15 essays. Her reminiscences are insightful and filled with memorable details, such as descriptions of Markova's beautiful feet or of the blind Alonzo hurling across the stage with daredevil abandon. De Mille's portraits of dancers may be of the greatest interest, but those of her relatives and friends are also compelling, particularly that of her father William, whose contribution to the nascent film industry was overshadowed by that of his brother, Cecil B. De Mille. This beautifully written volume should be purchased by most collections.
- Susan Thach Dean, M.L.S., Barnet, Vt.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0395528097
• ISBN 13: 9780395528099
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 314